This morning, I'd invite you to turn with me once again to the Gospel of Luke, Luke's Gospel, Chapter 1. You may not remember this. It seems like it's been so long, but we actually began a study in the Gospel of Luke some while back. Of course, that study has been interrupted by things along the way, but that's okay. But we resume that study today. Luke chapter one, I'd like to read a portion of the chapter beginning in verse 57, down through the end of the chapter. Luke chapter one, and with God's word open before us, let's seek the Lord once again in prayer and ask the Lord now to speak to us through his word. Let's pray. O Lord, as we bow now in Thy presence with Thy word open before us, we pray that the Holy Spirit would bear witness to its truth and make the application to every heart need. We invite Thee, Lord, to search our hearts and to tend to every need. And we pray, Lord, especially for any that may yet be outside the fold, who have not closed in with Jesus Christ to the saving of their souls, Lord, for such as these we pray, in particular, that thou wilt open their eyes, enable them to behold the glorious sight of Christ dying in their place, and then compel them, Lord, to flee to Jesus, whom to know is life everlasting. Be pleased, O Lord, to take me up, make me a vessel fit for thy use. To that end I plead the blood of Christ, And ask, Lord, that you'll 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. Luke chapter one, we pick it up in verse 57. This is the word of God, let us hear it. Now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father how he would have him called. Let me pause there and just call your attention to the fact that Zacharias has been struck dumb. He hasn't been able to speak because of his unbelief through this nine-month period, okay? So they're making signs to him now. What is his decision where the name of this child is concerned? We read verse 63, and he asked for a writing table and wrote, saying, his name is John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed. And he spake and praised God. And fear came on all them that dwelt round about them. And all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life, And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. Amen. We'll end our reading at the end of the chapter. We know the Lord will add his blessing to the reading of his word for his namesake. If I could call your attention in particular to verse 57, A simple statement there, now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered and she brought forth a son. Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered and she brought forth a son. We're told in the very first verse of Hebrews that in time past God spoke unto the fathers by the prophets. For some 400 years, however, during that period of time that transpired between the Old Testament and the New Testament, no voice of a prophet was heard in Israel. That's rather remarkable to think about. Rather remarkable to contemplate that when you turn in your Bible from Malachi, the very last chapter, the last verse, the last page in the Old Testament, turn that over one page into the New Testament, and you have just gone through 400 years. That's how long the period was between Old and New Testament. And no voice of a prophet was heard during that lengthy period. It's an interesting number, 400. It represents the same number of years that the children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt. And the spiritual condition of Israel at the time of the opening of the New Testament was, in some respects, the same as the condition of Israel in Egypt. Oh, they weren't slaves, at least not in the same way they had been in Egypt, but they were in spiritual darkness. John says in John chapter 1 and verse 5, with regard to Christ, that the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. It was not, therefore, a time of pristine purity in the practice of Judaism when John the Baptist was born. It was, rather, a time of darkness, a time of apostasy, a dark time when John the Baptist was born. But the history of redemption teaches us something. It teaches us that darkness always gives way to light. That was the lesson of the Reformation. It's also the lesson of the Great Awakening. And it teaches us to expect and to seek the Lord for the light of the gospel to break out again when times are dark. Let there be light, we read in Genesis 1, and that is not only the language of creation. It's also the language of revival. And with the birth of John the Baptist, we can say that the nation of Israel was about to be visited by such power again. There had been many prophets in her past, but now the greatest of the prophets was about to arise and had just been born. And as we read the account of the birth of John the Baptist, we can't help but be reminded of the story of Abraham and Sarah. I know I touched upon this in an earlier study. Like Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis, Zacharias and Elizabeth were beyond their childbearing years. Maybe it was because of the darkness that had prevailed for so long that Zacharias found it hard to believe the message of the angel Gabriel when he was told by that angel that he and his wife would have a child. When he discovered, however, that he could no longer speak but was made dumb on account of his unbelief, He undoubtedly would have come to realize very quickly that the promise given to him by God would indeed be fulfilled, and nothing would stand in the way of God honoring his promise. Now, we can look at such a story and marvel at the unusual things that happen in connection with the birth of John the Baptist. But at the same time, you might be tempted to ask, is there any practical value to this story? Or do we simply derive the benefit of marveling at what happened so many years ago to the historical characters of Zacharias and Elizabeth? Well, if that's the way you think, you wouldn't be thinking right. In fact, spiritually speaking, You have more in common with the birth of John the Baptist than what you may realize. And these are the things that I want to focus on for a few moments this morning. The things we have in common with the birth of John the Baptist. And I want to conduct this analysis with a sense of purpose, okay? So my aim this morning is to make you see that the knowledge of the things you have in common with the birth of John the Baptist should compel you to live a life with a sense of purpose and meaning. One of the things that I dread and that I fear about young people coming up in the church, and not just this church, but in all our churches, and indeed an upcoming generation, one of the things I fear is that so many of them will fail to find any sense of purpose and meaning in their lives, many even in their Christian lives. They just go with the flow, so to speak, until they can, at last, break away from what they consider to be awful constraints and restraints that are placed upon them, maybe by parental authority, and then they seek to find meaning for their lives in terms of what the world has to offer. If I accomplish my aim this morning, you will come to realize that you're special and that you're valuable as a believer in Christ, that you're the beneficiary of a miracle and that you were created and redeemed for a purpose. Well, consider with me then, first of all, that we, like John the Baptist, are children of promise. We, like John the Baptist, are children of promise. The word of the Lord to Zacharias from an angel sent by God is given to us back in verse 13 of Luke chapter one, where the angel says, thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. That's why he named him the way he did, okay? He was told that by the angel. But here we have a promise, don't we? Thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. In answer to his prayers then, Zacharias received this promise from the Lord. And before John the Baptist was born, you could argue that he was, therefore, a child of promise. I noted a moment ago the similarities between the birth of John the Baptist and the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was given the promise that the Lord would make of him a great nation. That's found in Genesis chapter 12. A few chapters later, that promise is repeated, but Abraham questions the Lord. In Genesis 15, verse 2, we read these words, And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. Oh, this was a remarkable promise, but Abraham wasn't seeing any clue as to when it would be fulfilled. He was childless at that point. And so we can say of Isaac, in the Old Testament, the same thing that we say of John the Baptist, both were children of promise. Both were born in accordance with that promise. What I want you to see now and to impress upon you is the truth of what Paul teaches us in Galatians 4, verse 28, where we read these verses. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Do you get that? Christians are children of promise. Remember that Galatians was written primarily to Gentiles, not Jews. The Christians at Galatia were children of promise, from which we can draw the conclusion that true Christians are children of promise. This is brought out by Paul again in Romans 9, verse 8, where he writes that they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son." In Romans 9, verses 8 and 9. And this portion of God's word in Romans 9 really shows us why the Jews hated Paul. They thought they were the children of promise by virtue of their being natural-born Israelites. Paul is introducing the idea that it is not the natural born children that are the heirs of the covenant. It is the spiritually born children. These are the ones that believe in Christ. These are the ones that, like Isaac, are children of promise. Now, the question that can naturally arise in lieu of what I've just said is simply this. What promise? And the answer is the promise that was given to the son by the father of a people given to him upon the condition that the son would become one of them and would represent them as the second Adam, meeting the requirements of the law, including the penalty that now had to be paid for the broken law. These are the children of promise, the ones given by the father to the son. In Hebrews 2 and verse 13 we find this promise. It's a quote from Isaiah 8 and verse 18. The reference is to Christ where we read, Behold, I and the children which God hath given me. There's the promise. There's the giving of the children. We find this promise or this giving of the children by the father to the son mentioned a number of times in John chapter 17, the chapter which contains Christ's high priestly prayer. Verse two, this is Christ now in prayer. He says to his father, as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Verse six, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Verse nine, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. So you see the father giving to his son, in these three instances, the promise of a people. Little further down, verse 20, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word." And this last verse, especially, gives us the basis for you to know whether or not you're a child of promise. Do you believe? Do you believe in Christ? The thing I want you to see here now, though, is that there is such a promise. God promised a people to his son. And so the thing that each professing Christian needs to weigh in his heart is the question, am I a child of the promise? Or to put it another way, very simply, am I one of the elect? Back in Romans 9, Paul implies one of the sure ways to determine the answer to that heart-searching question. He writes in Romans 9, in verse 6, Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. This was the question that would have naturally arisen in the minds of his readers. What about God's promises to Israel? Didn't God promise that Abraham's seed would be as numerous as the stars of the sky? What about that word? And Paul's reply is that the word of God has not been nullified. It's not as if the word of God has taken none effect. But the sad irony is that there was a sense in which that word did take no effect. It took no effect in the hearts of the unbelieving Jews. It took no effect in the hearts of that generation that rejected Christ. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. John 1 11. Here then is the mark of a child, the promise, the word of God does affect him. It does affect his heart. Paul specifies this very clearly in his first epistle to the Thessalonians. He writes to them, 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 4, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. That verse is so important because what it communicates to us is you can know. This doesn't have to be a mystery. You can know whether or not you are among the elect. They had grounds for knowing that they were elect. How did they know? Well, Paul goes on to tell them how they could know. In the next verse, he writes, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And in the next chapter, he reinforces this truth when he says in chapter two in verse 13, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. Here is what distinguishes the children of promise from others, then. They willingly receive the Word of God concerning Christ and concerning their need of Christ. They recognize the Word of God as the Word of God. They don't take it to be a book of men's opinions. They take the Bible to be the Word of God. And if the Word of God affects your heart and you find yourself drawn to Christ through that Word, then you have good cause for believing that you're a child of promise. Like the Thessalonians, you may know, brethren, beloved, your election of God. And such knowledge, you know, has both a humbling and an exalting effect on our hearts. How is it that you're a child of promise? Why were you chosen out of the world? And we must fall back on the truth that there's no cause in you or in me that would lead God to choose us We were sinners, just like everybody else, children of disobedience who walked in time past according to the course of this world, Ephesians 2 and verse 2. We were, by nature, children of wrath, even as others, Ephesians 2 and verse 3. Oh, the cause of your deliverance must be traced to the sovereign good pleasure of God, to the praise of the glory of his grace. I'm somewhat struck when I hear people of other theological persuasions suggest that the doctrines of grace spring from some source of intellectual pride. That's kind of a reputation, you know, that Presbyterians have. You guys are so proud and arrogant, so scholarly. On the contrary, the doctrines of grace eliminate pride. And they leave us standing humbly before our Savior with grateful hearts that by his grace alone, we gained an interest in Jesus Christ. So we, when I say we, I mean Christians, Christians like John the Baptist are children of promise. Consider with me next that we, like John the Baptist, are children of power, children of the promise and children of power. Twice in Luke chapter one, we're told that Zacharias and Elizabeth were well-stricken in years. We're told that in the narrative in verse seven, And we hear Zacharias affirm the same thing when he says to the angel in verse 18, whereby shall I know this? That is, that I will have a child. For I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years. Zacharias must not have been thinking much at that time about the story of Abraham and Sarah. The same thing would certainly apply to him that applied to Abraham and Sarah. And yet, what was the word of the angel of the Lord to Abraham? We looked at this in prayer meeting on Wednesday, Genesis 18 and verse 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? That was the question that the Lord himself put to Abraham and Sarah after Sarah laughed at the notion that she, at 90 years old, would bear a child. Oh, with Abraham and Sarah, that was impossible. And with Zacharias and Elizabeth, it was certainly impossible. But with God, all things are possible. This message is conveyed in each of the Synoptic Gospels. This was kind of our focus last Wednesday as well. Matthew 19, verse 26, but Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Mark 10, verse 27, and Jesus looking upon them saith, with men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible. And in Luke chapter 18, verse 27, and he said, the things that which are impossible with men are possible with God. I wonder this morning, what kind of impossible things are you facing where your life is concerned? Are you tempted to say this could never come to pass? The desires of my heart could never come to pass. They're impossible. Oh, you need to review these verses. Take that word impossible, okay? That's all I did on Wednesday. Take the word impossible and trace it through the Bible. And see how often the emphasis is placed on nothing being too hard for the Lord. With God, all things are possible. And so Isaac was born. The impossible was accomplished. And John the Baptist was born. Again, the impossible was accomplished. And Lazarus, in John's gospel, was raised from the dead after having been buried in that tomb for four days, another impossible task performed by the Lord. And as if that wasn't great enough, Christ himself rose from the dead. The impossible comes to pass again. It would seem then, wouldn't it, that our God is in the business of doing the impossible. You and I were impossible. And I'm speaking now spiritually, I'm not using that term the way some parents may use it in terms of their children with rebellious attitudes, oh, that child is impossible. No, this is actually much stronger what I have in mind now. As I read earlier from those verses in Ephesians, you were a child of disobedience. You were by nature a child of wrath. You were dead in trespasses and sins. You were a Christ-rejecting, sin-loving, hell-deserving sinner, and sinners don't naturally give up their sin. This has always amazed me, but maybe it shouldn't. It certainly illustrates the strength of inbred sin when you see a man or a woman or even a young person who stubbornly clings to his sin, even after it's cost him everything. His sin will cost him his health, his sin will cost him his job, his sin will cost him his marriage, his sin will cost him his family, his sin will cost him his friends, his sin will eventually make him wretched to himself and to anyone he's exposed to, and yet sinners continue to cling to their sin and will hug their sin all the way to hell, and even while they're burning in hell. they'll have the desire for their sin. The weeping and gnashing of their teeth will be because they can't fulfill their lusts any longer, but God gives them over to those lusts. They hate God, and they hate the fact that the sinful things they lusted over have now gone up in smoke, and they're given over to what they've chosen when they chose sin. You and I, we're in that category. Every child of Adam finds himself in that category. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Romans 3, verses 10 to 12. I think too many professing Christians think they can somehow take exception to those verses in Romans 3. Your salvation was as impossible as a man and woman well stricken in years giving birth to a son. And yet John the Baptist was born. He was born supernaturally. And Christians are born again. or born from above, supernaturally. It has nothing to do with their lineage, has nothing to do with their wills, has entirely to do with God who does the impossible. And so you can say as one who has a sincere interest in Christ, you are a miracle child. You've been raised from the dead, from spiritual death, Your affection for sin has been overcome by something even more powerful. And you'll notice I didn't say that you've let go of sin completely. No, we still fight against it. But the difference now, and this is how I used to explain it to my children when they were young. When you came into this world, when you were born, you had a love for sin and a hatred for Christ. When you were born from above, that whole thing flipped, and now you have a love for Christ and a hatred for sin. Doesn't mean that you don't sin, but it should mean that you hate it when you do. You hate sin. Your affection for sin has been overcome by something even more powerful, the power of God's Spirit affecting, by God's Word, the new birth in your life. The coming forth of Lazarus from the grave by the command of Christ is no less miraculous than you gaining a saving interest in Christ. This is what makes, you know, the charismatic movement appear so shallow. They profess to perform miracles. They profess to be the recipients of miracles. They profess to, um, speak in tongues, and I can tell you that by and large, certainly in my experience of them, they're not speaking in tongues. And yet all those so-called miracles do little more than create tingling sensations to the flesh at most. The real miracle is gaining an interest in Jesus Christ. Nothing short of a resurrection miracle is required for that. And because you've been the recipient of such a miracle, you should be encouraged to see the potential for even the hardest sinner to be the recipient of the same miracle that you've known. If Christ saved you and your salvation was impossible, then who is beyond the scope of the power of the gospel? The fact that you and I are children of miraculous power should teach us to hope for the salvation of others. And this leads to my last point. Like John the Baptist, you and I are children of promise. Like John the Baptist, you and I are children of power. Consider with me finally that we, like John the Baptist, are children with purpose. Children with purpose. The purpose for John's birth is given to us back in verse 16, Luke chapter one. This is the message of the angel to Zacharias concerning this miracle child that was to be born. And many of the children of Israel shall he, that is John, turn to the Lord their God. And once John was born, Zacharias himself would prophesy once he gained his voice back. And he would describe John's purpose in verses 77 through 79. Let me read those words. This is Zacharias now and is prophesying, and he's addressing now this child that has just been born and is about to be named, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Oh, not only are the children of promise the recipients of supernatural power, but they are to be the performers of supernatural power as well. This is not to say that the function of every Christian is to be a preacher or a missionary in the formal or vocational sense of those words, but it is to say that the purpose for which God translates us into his kingdom is that we, in turn, may shine brightly as lights that will draw others into that kingdom as well. the blessings of God and how we need to preach this to ourselves over and over again, day by day. The blessings of God were never meant to terminate on you. They were meant to go through you to others. Remember the historical setting for the birth of John the Baptist. The Israelites had been without the voice of a prophet for 400 years. The apostle John is led by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to call that period darkness. And yet the time of the Lord drew near. Christ was indeed coming, the darkness notwithstanding. And so the purpose of John the Baptist's ministry was in keeping with the coming of Christ. A people must be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Well, how much more should we be impressed with a sense of mission when we realize from God's Word that the second coming of Christ draws near? I know this doctrine oftentimes is abused, and it sickens me to see how it's sensationalized by speculation that finds prophecy fulfillment in the headlines of tomorrow's newspaper. But those things notwithstanding, the truth still stands, Christ is coming again. And people are not prepared to stand before him. And his next coming won't be as his first coming. When He comes the second time, He comes to consummate redemption, and He comes to bring forth judgment, and the dead, both great and small, will stand before Him, and unless they've been reconciled to Him by trusting in Him, they'll be forever lost. So there is a purpose behind our redemption. And a part of that service is expressed in the words of Titus 2, verse 14. Speaking of Christ, it says that he gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. That term zealous means one burning with zeal, a zealot. In the next chapter of Titus, Paul reinforces this truth when he writes in chapter 3 and verse 8, This is a faithful saying, And these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things I will that thou affirm constantly. Paul writes to Titus, and so we ever need to be reminded that we've been redeemed for a purpose. God calls upon us to glorify Him in all that we do, and He calls upon us to communicate by our lives and by our words the truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, O Lord, Grant that everything I do may be so with that aim in view, leading people to that glorious truth. Let my life demonstrate it. Let my words say it. And then Lord, bring forth miracles as only thou canst do. In keeping with our predestination, Paul writes in Ephesians 2 and verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Oh, the person who is continually lax in the burden he bears for the extension of Christ's kingdom, there's a sense, you know, in which he's denying his own election. Sadly, we all find it too easy to become lax when it comes to our ultimate purpose in this world. This is why one of the functions of church is to provoke one another to love and to good works. Hebrews 10, 24. And so like Isaac and like John the Baptist, You are children of promise as believers in Jesus Christ, the Father promised the people to his Son. In keeping with that promise, you were miraculously born, born from above, and you were supernaturally born from above with a purpose, a purpose of turning the hearts of lost souls to Christ. When you consider the fact that we still live in an age of salvation, then that means that the Lord still has a people to be gathered in. What he said to Paul can apply to you and me when he said, I have much people in this city. Can they be reached or is the day too dark? Can they be one or are their hearts too hard? Thank God you were reached. You were reached with supernatural power. You were reached perhaps by someone who took to heart the purpose for which they had been saved. How can you and I do anything less? And so you see that you really have quite a bit in common with the birth of John the Baptist. You're a child of promise. You're a child of power. You're a child with purpose. May God make you zealous for that purpose. And may we see the Lord do impossible things for the glory of his name and the advancement of his kingdom, even in this new year into which we've now entered. Let's close then in prayer. O Lord, as we bow in Thy presence now and bring this meeting to a close, we thank Thee for the power of the gospel. We thank Thee, Lord, that it is wholly by Thy grace and by Thy power that we have gained an interest in Jesus Christ. We would never have believed in Him apart from a movement on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee, Lord, for such a movement And we pray, O Lord, that Thou wilt help us to consider in this new year the purpose for which we've been redeemed, which is to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ, to become Thy servants, vessels fit for Thy use, pointing others to Jesus Christ. O may we be used mightily in Thy service in this new year And may this be a year, O Lord, in which we see great and mighty miracles done for the joy of Thy people and for the glory of Thy name. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.