I'd like you to turn with me this morning once again to Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, I want to read a portion of the chapter beginning in verse 5. And with God's word open before us, let's seek the Lord in prayer and ask the Lord now to bless his word and speak to our hearts through it. Let's pray. O Lord, as we bow now in thy presence with thy word open before us, we do ask, O Lord, that thou wilt indeed send forth thy word with power. May we discover it to be a living word to our souls today. And we ask, Lord, that thou wilt minister to every heart need, and especially, Lord, for any in our midst that may be strangers to thy grace, we pray for such as these that thou will speak to them with the voice that wakes the dead and calls them to hear and perceive their lost condition, and then compel them, dear God, to flee to Christ, whom to know is life everlasting. O Lord, I'm mindful of my dependence upon thee, I am very much aware that I can accomplish nothing without Thee. And so I plead the blood of Christ over my life and ask of Thee, Lord, based on the merits of the blood, that Thou wilt cleanse me so that I may in turn be filled with Thy Spirit, led and guided by Him. And may it please Thee to grant to me strength of heart and mind, clarity of thought and speech, and especially unction from on high. We pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Luke chapter one, we begin in verse five. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zechariah said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them. And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless. And it came to pass that as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days, his wife, Elizabeth, conceived and hid herself five months, saying, thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach from among men. Amen, we'll end our reading in verse 25. And we know that the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of his word for his namesake. If I could call your attention in particular to verses five through seven from this portion we've just read. Let me read those again. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years." Keeping in mind the purpose statement of Luke's gospel, Maybe I should have included this in our reading. That's found in verse 4, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Recall, if you will, this gospel was written to a particular individual. a man by the name of Theophilus, and Luke wrote to Theophilus for this specific reason, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed." Luke then begins his story in a way that none of the other gospel writers do. He sets the historical setting or the historical context for the coming of Jesus Christ. And so it's worth noting that in a day and age like so many other days and ages throughout history in which the Bible is maligned and criticized and treated like fable and fiction, it's worth noting that what we're actually dealing with here is history, true, actual history. Notice how verse five begins. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea. History provides us with a great deal of information about this Herod, king of Judea. We know, for example, that he was not a Jew. He was an Edomite, which meant he was a descendant of Esau. Being the politician that he was, he felt the need to gain the trust and affection of the people over whom he was appointed to be the ruler by the Roman Empire. So one commentator notes, Heron conducted a vast public works program highlighted by the rebuilding of the temple, still ongoing during Jesus' ministry, and the construction of the port city of Caesarea. He also revived the city of Samaria and built the remarkable and virtually impregnable fortress of Besada. He showed favor toward the people by twice lowering their taxes, and during the severe famine of 25 B.C., Herod even melted down gold objects from his palace to buy food for the poor. He was so popular with some Jews that they formed the pro-Herod party, which came to be known as the Herodians. And as this commentator notes, the Herodians, just like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were in the end the enemies of Jesus Christ. There was also a very dark side to Herod. We have the account in Matthew's gospel of him slaying the children two years old and younger because of the potential threat that the Christ child posed to his kingdom. History tells us more about this dark side to Herod. Again, I quote from this commentator, Now what I'm seeking to emphasize just now as I relate these historical details about Herod is the simple fact that when it comes to Luke's gospel, or when it comes to the Bible itself for that matter, we're dealing with actual history. That's not to say, obviously, that the Bible is all history. We know, of course, that there are other literary genres in the Bible. But when the narrative is historical, it's because the history is actual. This becomes very important, I'm sure you know, when it comes to the early chapters of Genesis. There are so many attempts in our day to reconcile Old Testament history with modern-day science, so-called, and in a number of those attempts, history is denied. And attempts are made to reclassify history under some other form or genre of literature. Perhaps the greatest evidence to cite against those attempts is the simple fact that until the age of Charles Darwin, it never entered the minds of any student of the Bible to deny its history. And lest you go, I suppose, way back to the days of antiquity when the Bible was interpreted throughout as fanciful allegory, So let's note during these early studies of Luke's gospel that Luke is giving us historical narrative. And it might be appropriate also to note in these early studies that Luke is the longest book in the New Testament, and that combined with the book of Acts, and Acts, you may recall, is, in a sense, Luke volume two, When you combine Luke's gospel with the book of Acts, it makes Luke the author of more than one-fourth of the New Testament, more than any other writer. As one well-known commentator notes, in those two books, Luke presents the most comprehensive New Testament account of the history of redemption. His gospel in the book of Acts spans six and a half decades, from the birth of John the Baptist to Paul's first Roman imprisonment. Luke also includes a significant amount of new material. More than 40% of his gospel is not found in any other of the gospel accounts. Certainly makes this a book worth studying, I think. I want to draw your attention this morning then to the first two characters that Luke mentions following his mention of Herod as he presents to us the historical setting for the coming of Christ. Note again what verse five and the verses that follow say. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the courts of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, and they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren and they both were now well stricken in years. Keeping in mind that Luke's purpose in writing his gospel is that Theophilus and beyond Theophilus, his readers throughout the history of the church might know the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed, I find it very striking that within these three verses that introduce us to Zacharias and Elizabeth and describe them generally, we find a number of spiritual truths emerging that have been and are true throughout the course of church history, dating all the way back to the beginning of Genesis and carried forward to the very end of the book of Revelation. There are a number of these truths. I'm not going to attempt to cover them all, but I want to highlight three of them, and I want to highlight them so that you might, in the spirit of loose gospel, know the certainty of them, and as a result, have your assurance in these glorious truths strengthened. So, confidence in certain redemptive truths. That's my theme. You can and should be confident in these redemptive truths. First up, the truth of justification. The truth of justification. Note the opening words of verse six. And they, that is Zacharias and Elizabeth, they were both righteous before God. A number of commentators interpret this statement to read that Zacharias and Elizabeth were upright before God. They then take the next statement to basically restate the same thing when we read, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. In other words, here's a description of their being upright. Here's what upright means. They walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. I found it rather interesting to note that not one modern English translation affirms that interpretation of that word. If the word upright means that, why haven't any of the English translations translated it that way? I say none of them have, you know, I didn't consult all 500 plus modern translations, but the most well-known ones I did, and they are all in agreement, they are all in agreement with our authorized version which translates that word righteous. They were righteous. None of them say they were upright, says they were righteous. A pretty straightforward translation of the Greek word righteous, which 41 times is translated by the word righteous, and 33 times is translated by the word just. I like the definition given by one Greek lexicon, which reads like this. of those who seem to themselves to be righteous, who pride themselves to be righteous, who pride themselves in their virtues, whether real or imagined. But you could say self-righteousness in that instance. Two, innocent, faultless, guiltless. Another definition of the word. Now admittedly, the word can also mean in a wide sense upright, righteous, virtuous, keeping the commands of God that is within the scope of possible definitions for the word, but I believe that the key to a proper interpretation of the word that we find in our text has to be found in the words before God. They were righteous before God, both of them. When we think of uprightness, we think of it in general in a sense as it applies to others, upright before others. We don't think of it in a sinless sense. Our text, however, tells us they were righteous before God. And it wouldn't make sense to say that God recognizes them in a general sense, but not in a sinless sense. God doesn't heap flattery on people, you see. Says they were righteous before God. You can take it pretty much straightforward. That's how they're viewed. That's how God views them. I believe the righteousness that is in view here is the same kind that Paul describes in Philippians chapter three, beginning in verse seven. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Oh, it's appropriate, isn't it, that we focus during this month of October, Reformation month, on the righteousness which is of God by faith. This is the perfect righteousness of Christ. This is that righteousness that is imputed to us and received by faith alone. This is that righteousness that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter five, verse 17. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. And of course, I can't resist the temptation to park on that verse just for a moment. to point out how two things are pointed out in that verse that enable the believer to reign in life. What does it mean to reign in life? Basically, it means that you're on top of life instead of life being on top of you. And there are two things that are necessary in order for the believer to reign in life. He must receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. And if you have an understanding and appreciation for those things, you will reign in life no matter what the circumstances of life bring to you, okay? I would not suggest for a moment, some people I suppose would mistake it for this, reigning in life means life is easy. Well, no, it doesn't. It means that you are on top of life circumstances notwithstanding. And the thing I'd have you see now from the characters of Zacharias and Elizabeth is that they were both righteous before God, or they were justified the same way that any and every character throughout the history of redemption was ever justified, which was and is by faith. The Apostle Paul shows us this so clearly in Romans 4, when he expounds the doctrine of justification by faith, and how does he do it? How does he make his case? He does it by referencing two characters in the Old Testament. Romans 4, verse 1, what shall we say then that Abraham, our father, is pertaining to the flesh hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. So the doctrine of justification by faith takes us all the way back to Abraham. Indeed, you could argue it goes back even further. But we'll save that for another occasion, perhaps. And then Paul goes on to expound how the doctrine is also based on the Old Testament character of David. Romans 4 and verse 6, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, let me pause there and underscore that. God imputeth righteousness. Do you get that? The blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, say it to yourself, God imputeth righteousness, without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Oh, there's an imputation you want, and there's an imputation you don't want, in which you're thankful that you don't have. Sin is not imputed to you. Christ's righteousness is imputed to you. And when Paul says that the Lord will not impute sin, he's saying that with reference to the believer. God will not impute sin to the believer. God actually will and has, in fact, imputed sin, but he's imputed it to Christ rather than to us. So we read in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, for he, God, hath made him, Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Sin imputed to Christ, Christ's righteousness imputed to us. So going as far back as Abraham, coming forward to David, all the way up to Zacharias and Elizabeth, we can say that justification has been the same way and on the same basis throughout the history of redemption. Indeed, Job is recognized as being the oldest book in the Bible. You might wonder how that could be, after all, Genesis takes us to the very beginning, doesn't it? And it's true, obviously, the book of Genesis takes us to the beginning of time, but Genesis was written by Moses. Job predates Moses. That's why we can call Job the oldest book, because Job himself would be the oldest author of an Old Testament book. And in the book of Job, the question is raised repeatedly as to how man can be just with God. Indeed, I think you could say that that's the very thing that's fleshed out throughout the book of Job, that very theme. I won't trace all the references for you now, but I will refer you to the shortest chapter in the book of Job, which is chapter 25, very brief chapter. In that chapter, Bildad, one of Job's friends, is making his final speech, and it's very brief. You might say that at that point in the debate between Job and his friends, Bildad has become frustrated. He and his friends, you see, were governed by the simplistic notion that God blesses the righteous and condemns the wicked. Now in a broad sense, that's true. But Job's response to build that is to point out to him the number of instances where the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Constant dilemma, you know, that's found in a number of places in scripture, most notably Psalm 73 and Psalm 77. And so you can sense the frustration when Bildad asks the question in chapter 25 in verse four, how then can man be justified with God? You know, that's beyond doubt the most important question you can contemplate. What I want you to note just now is that the issue raised in Bildad's question is in large measure the issue of the entire Bible throughout the history of redemption. And in thinking on Bildad's question, the words of Christ come immediately to mind as a good answer to that question. With man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Man cannot justify himself. On Wednesday after prayer meeting, I described a t-shirt I'd love to take the image from and blow it up into a poster that I could mount in my yard for this Halloween season. It would be my answer to all the scary displays that are now found in my neighborhood. The top of that image contains the words, Reformation Day, October 31st, 1517. Under that heading is a picture of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, and then underneath that picture is the saying, there's nothing scarier than works-based salvation. Oh, I'd love a display of that. Maybe we'll get that yet. We'll see. Maybe next year, if not this year, at any rate. What a blessing. to know the certainty, remember Luke's purpose, certainty, to know the certainty of the truth of justification by faith. This is not a Reformation innovation, something that was introduced by Martin Luther, Catholic Church accused him of that initially. Oh, you're bringing up something, Luther, that nobody has heard of. This is a new thing. This is a novice thing. And in a sense, they were right, because the doctrine had been so obscured and buried for centuries. But Luther's reply was, be that as it may, it's what the Bible says. It's what the Bible teaches. So he was accused of that. But in fact, as I say, justification by faith has been the truth of God's word and God's gracious plan of salvation from even before the fall of man. We certainly find it to be the case in our text with Zacharias and Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God on the basis of an imputed righteousness, imputed to them and received by faith. Well, let's also note that we can have confidence not only in the truth of justification, we can also be confident in the truth of sanctification. And this takes me to my next point, which is that very thing, the truth of sanctification, the certainty of that truth. And this takes us to the second part of verse six, Luke one. Notice what it says. and they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Notice especially the word walking. Walking in all the commandments. This is a word that refers to the Christian's conduct. Paul uses this exact term when he writes to the Philippians, Philippians 3, verse 5. He's giving his testimony now. Paul was blameless in a sense. And what does that mean? I mean, doesn't Paul own his own sin? Well, yes, he does. This is a faithful saying, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, and yet he's blameless? Well, you have to understand, based strictly on his behavior, Paul could not be blamed. Nobody could point a finger at him and say to him or of him, you're a lawbreaker, Paul. You violated the first, second, third command, whatever. This is a good testimony for a Christian to have, and we should be striving to have such testimonies. But what we need to note here is that this righteousness, which Paul is referring to in Philippians 3, is the righteousness that he's going to disown and go so far as to even call it dung. Again, verses 7 through 9, Philippians 3. But what things were gained to me, he writes, and certainly being blameless before others by the law would be one of those things he gained. and the thing that was gained to him, as I say, was being found blameless before others, those I counted lost for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, which he was blameless before the eyes of others, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." So we have in our text back in Luke 1, Zacharias and Elizabeth righteous before God, and also in a sense, blameless before men. The one thing leads inevitably to the other. Or if I could use more theological terminology, justification leads inevitably to sanctification. Imputed righteousness leads to practical righteousness. I've heard it said, perhaps you have too. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says you ought to hear this if you're presenting the gospel right. Someone ought to approach you and say, if what you're saying is true, that means I can live however I want. To which I replied, that's exactly what it means. But now here's the question. How do you want to live? In the light of believing that you were condemned, a lawbreaker on your way to hell, you've come to see Christ presented to you as the sacrifice for sinners. He's rescued your soul from hell. How do you wanna live now? And to the man who truly believes it, who has really grasped the fact and felt the reality that he's hellbound and hell-deserving, his sentiment will be, I owe Christ everything. I want to live for Him. I want to follow the ways that are pleasing to Him. And how do I do that? Well, the Lord makes it pretty clear. If you love me, keep my commandments. That's our sanctification. Our Shorter Catechism defines sanctification this way. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace. And I know, bear with me if I'm sounding kind of elementary here, and you've probably heard this, but it's worth reminding ourselves that justification is defined as an act of God's free grace. Adoption is defined as an act of God's free grace. Sanctification, on the other hand, is defined as the work of God's free grace. whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness." Sanctification, then, is a work of God's Spirit. It's in the realm of sanctification that we take into account our spiritual warfare. We make advances. We suffer setbacks. We'll see a perfect example of such a setback in Zacharias when we get to him later in the chapter. We'll find him in the temple performing his priestly function when an angel appears to him, announces to him the good news that his wife is going to bear a child. Zacharias thinks this is impossible, and for his unbelief, he'll be struck dumb and be unable to speak until that child is born. The point now being that even though he was righteous before God and blameless before men, he was not immune from unbelief, and neither are we. How often do we have occasion to utilize the words of the distressed father who was seeking deliverance for his tormented son, to say, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Whenever sin is found in our lives, you can pretty much mark it down, there is always an underlying cause of unbelief. And this takes us right to the heart of the matter of what Paul describes in Romans chapter 7, beginning in verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not, for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent under the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me." Two things from that passage I would point out to you when it comes to this battle that I think we all know and are familiar with, if we're honest. The first thing you need to realize is that Paul goes on to write in chapter 8, and it's always worth pointing out that chapter divisions are something that were put upon the Bible. The chapter divisions are not inspired They were created as aids to our reading. Same with verses. They were created to aid us in our reading. So there is no break in the thought between chapter seven and chapter eight. And when you come to chapter eight, keeping in mind now what we've just read from chapter seven, oh, I'm doing the things I shouldn't do. I'm failing to do the things I ought to do. How do I gain victory in that? What is the key to that battle? Well, here's where it starts. No condemnation. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Arguably, that takes us back to our justification, doesn't it? There's no condemnation because there's already been condemnation. Christ was condemned in your place, and God will never demand from you what He's already received from His Son. And keep in mind that no condemnation does not depend on how successful you are in your battle against sin. Maybe you've had a great week in terms of your success in overcoming the world and the flesh and the devil. I hope you have. But whether you have or not has no bearing on your standing with God. Your standing with God can't be improved upon because your standing is found in Christ, which means your standing with God is as good and as secure as Christ's standing with God is. So that's the first part, the very important part when it comes to our sanctification and the battle involved in it. Second thing I'd point out from the verses I read from Romans 7 is that Paul refuses to identify with his carnal nature. It is no more I that do it, he says twice in those verses, but sin that dwelleth in me. Now, very important that we understand that Paul's not excusing sin by saying, it's no more I that do it. You've kind of heard the phrase, I'm sure, along the way, well, the devil made me do it, as if to suggest, therefore, I'm not responsible. But that's not the idea that Paul's presenting. When he says, it's no more I that do it, but sin dwelleth in me, what he is saying is that he refuses to identify with that sin. Oh, I commit sin. But at the time, I refused to identify with it. That's not me. I disavow it. I hate it. And I look to the Lord for the grace not only to forgive it, but to overcome it. That's sanctification. That's how it works. And sanctification has been and is a part of the Christian's life, dating all the way back to Zacharias and Elizabeth and way beyond them. You can be just as certain, therefore, of the certainty of the truth of your sanctification. I touched on this in prayer meeting on Wednesday. Recall that I cited the verse from Philippians 1 and verse 6, he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What tremendous assurance we have. God will do this. May seem slow, may be painstakingly slow, but God will do it. Another way to view it is in terms of Christ as our surety. What does that mean? You find that in Hebrews, Christ our surety. It means, basically, a surety is one who takes on the responsibility for another man's debt, okay? Christ takes on the responsibility of landing us safely on heaven's shore. He takes on the responsibility of perfecting his image in us. He's our surety. So make sure that your justification always functions as the motivational power behind your sanctification. I love that stanza in Luther's hymn, another one to reflect on during Reformation month. When he says, did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. Boy, if ever there was a hymn that lent itself to a sermon, it would be that statement. Our striving would be losing. How many Christians are familiar with losing striving? Striving that amounts to loss because you gain nothing from it. Luther knew it better than anyone. If ever there was a figure in history who knew something about striving that in the end loses, it would be Martin Luther. But by going to the cross of Christ and knowing the basis for your justification in Christ's perfect life and atoning death, you gain the power to be more than conquerors through him that loved us. And it's his love that motivates us. I was telling a few people in the kitchen this morning that I've fallen in love with a hymn that I heard for the first time this week. I think it's the first hymn I probably heard in a real long time in which I said, I've got to get the words to that. That is so tremendous, and there's a line in it that reads like this, death is dead, love has won, for Christ has conquered. He's risen. Amen. So justification is a certain truth, true throughout history. Sanctification is a certain truth also throughout history. Zacharias and Elizabeth were both justified and sanctified. I'll only take time to mention one more truth that is certain throughout history. I'm pretty sure that we're gonna need to revisit this one. And this is the last point, but I'll at least mention it, which is the truth of our trials. The truth of our trials. Note the words of verse seven. and they had no child because that Elizabeth was barren and they both were now well stricken in years. They had no child. Now in our day, we might view such a phenomenon as being a sad circumstance or providence in life. In ancient days, it was viewed as a sign of great reproach. which indicated some form of judgment or curse from God. Rather ironic, isn't it, that this couple, Zacharias and Elizabeth, both righteous before God, both blameless, would nonetheless still be viewed as being somehow within the realm of God's disfavor because they didn't have any children. John MacArthur has an interesting note here. He writes, ironically, though God viewed Zacharias and Elizabeth as righteous, many of those who knew them did not. The sad truth was that they had no child because Elizabeth was barren. Many in that culture would have wondered whether sin in their lives had caused God to withhold children, which were recognized as his gift. Childlessness was an extremely difficult burden for women and their husbands to bear in Jewish society, as the Old Testament illustrates. See, for example, the story of Rachel in Genesis 30, Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. Humanly speaking, the situation for Zacharias and Elizabeth appeared hopeless since they were both advanced in years. Despite being righteous in God's sight, they had lived all their married lives bearing the stigma of childlessness. Both those who viewed Elizabeth's barrenness as God's punishment for her or her husband's sin were wrong." End quote. God's trials can bring you there. God's trials may be lengthy, and they may run deep. Certainly the case in this instance, isn't it, with Zacharias and Elizabeth? When I taught the book of Job in our Adult Sunday School class many years ago, I pointed out, probably throughout those studies, that God is in complete charge of every ingredient that goes into our trials. He determines the length of them. He determines the circumstances that surround them. He determines how deep they go, how long they last. Every part of it is dictated by God. I remember When we first introduced those studies, people, you know, have kind of a superstitious attitude toward Job. Oh no, we're going to study the book of Job. I guess God must know I need preparation for a lot of terrible things that are about to happen to me. But when you think about it, how many people do you know that have suffered the way Job suffered? I don't know of any. Really, one exception, that being Christ himself. The point being that God is in charge of every ingredient. He determines the length, the depth of the trial, how far it will go, how long it will last. And the thing that we always need to keep in mind, too, when it comes to trials, and this is demonstrated by Job, God always has a purpose of grace. behind the trials. Trials are certain. When you think about it, can you reflect on any character you find in the Bible? And I'm thinking now of the positive characters, okay? Our Bible heroes, if you will. Can you think of any one of them that was exempt from trials? Oh, they've been promised to us by Christ. And there are times when the simple recognition that they are by God's design will give you the needed patience to bear up during them. Well, like I say, we may have to come back and revisit this last point. So what are the truths we can have confidence in this morning because they're certain? You can be certain of your justification. It's based on Christ's merit. You can be certain of your sanctification. It's based on God's work in you. And you can be certain that your sanctification will involve trials specifically ordered by God in every detail for his glory and for our ultimate good. The certainty of the things in which you've been instructed. May God stamp that certainty on all our hearts today. Let's close then in prayer. O Lord, as we bow now in thy presence and bring this meeting to a close, we thank you for the certainty of the doctrines of the Bible. O Lord, there's a sense in which justification almost seems too good to be true, and yet it's so clearly revealed. and it's come at a very high price, even the blood of thy son. We thank thee that based on his perfect life and atoning death, that justice has been satisfied, and therefore we can be justified by faith in him. We ask, O Lord, that the truth of it would so fill and thrill our souls, that we draw from that glorious truth increased strength and motivation to strive for the righteousness that's been imputed to us, knowing as we do that our success in that striving is not the basis of our standing, but it is the fruit of our standing. So Lord, grant that we will bear much fruit in that regard. And help us, O Lord, to understand the gracious purpose behind our trials. We cannot deny that when we find ourselves in the midst of them, this becomes a daunting task. But O Lord, we know that Thou art ever faithful. So help us, Lord, help any that may be going through trials even at this time. May they be able to perceive that there is a purpose of grace behind them and that, in the end, we will come forth as gold. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.