I would invite you to open your Bibles this evening to the gospel of Luke again as I continue. Moving straight from the birth and naming and circumcision of John the Baptist too, once Zacharias or Zechariah, his voice is given back to him, gives unto the Lord a song of praise and worship, a prophecy of what God will do through John and the one that John serves as forerunner for, that is Jesus, the Messiah. A term with me to Luke 1, verse 67, and I'll read to the end of that chapter. Now, his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. And He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who 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, 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 the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest. For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God. with which the day spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace. So the child, John the Baptist, or baptizer, so the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the deserts to the day of his manifestation to Israel. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word, and let me pray now for the blessing of the preaching of it. Lord, we come to you tonight, and we ask that you might, the light of the world, visit with us, and that you might, the one who gives light to men, give wisdom and understanding that comes from your word. O Lord, your word is truth. And we ask that we might receive it, not as the words of men, but the very words of God, not only the reading of it, but the preaching of it, for the sake of our salvation and the building of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. These things we ask in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. I have stood in this pulpit many Sundays. Ministry, even prior to my ordination, which was in the fall of 2011, preaching in 2010, and even in the early days here, when I would, with Lacey Andrews, swap out each, every Sunday, I would take the first, third, and if there was a fifth Sunday, I would preach that Sunday. And one of the things I have noticed, I've noticed a lot of things, believe me. I don't see everything, but I've seen about everything. Maybe you're picking your nose. Maybe you're falling asleep. I see it all. Kids doing this all the time, squirming. Adults also doing this. I've seen it all. And what I've seen mostly encourages me. In fact, one of the privileges that I have as a minister of the gospel is I get to hear everyone else singing. Those of you who sit in the front, you get to enjoy that as well. It's coming at you. What I have seen also, as a mirror opposite to the singing of the saints, is I have seen people stand here with their hymnals open, or maybe not hymnals open at all, and they just have this dour countenance, and they're not singing. They should be singing, but they're not singing. And there's no principled reason to it other than, I don't know, maybe they don't like to sing. And I'm wondering, do you know what God has done? He has set you loose from the law of sin and death. He has not only given you a voice that can make sound, the glory of the vocal folds and how a human can produce. And I know some of you can say, I can't sing. I've heard some of you and I believe you to an extent, but I know that you can learn to sing. Everyone can to some extent. but to choose not to sing. In fact, this text flies in the very face of that. That the very first thing that Zacharias does when he is given his voice is he uses his voice as a priest to do the very thing that the priests were called to do. And is that not what you and I are? A royal line of priests, redeemed from death, called to sing in such a way. Are we not now filled by the Spirit? Not to sing new songs of revelation that we are to receive as inspirational, authoritative words, but we sing what God has done. And this is what happens here. He is filled with the Holy Spirit, and in being filled with the Holy Spirit, He has given Scripture which is why we just sang what he sang, the inspired words of God in response to the miracle of a son who should not have been, and is himself, though a miracle, the one who would point the way, John the baptizer, to the one whom we call the Messiah. Every Lord's Day, this is the theme of our song. Not in anticipation of the Messiah, though, there is an anticipatory factor in our singing, an element in that, and we wait for Christ to come again when he shall consummate all of those things promised to us. But do you think about that on your way to church on Sunday morning? Me, me, me, me. You know, you're getting your voice warmed up. Have you ever seen some of these vocal warmups? Maybe don't do them here, do them in the car on the way. Some of them are quite odd. But it's not just the warming of our voices, it's the warming of our hearts. In fact, we have six whole days to get prepared for the seventh or the first, that day of worship. And so every Lord's Day, we celebrate the giving of the Redeemer and all that He has done. And so, I think we can relate, ultimately, to Zacharias' prophecy. This evening, I wanna look at the content of it. Two points. The scope, the scope of Messianic salvation, and the purpose of Messianic salvation. The scope of Messianic salvation and the purpose of Messianic salvation. Let's look at the first point this evening. The scope of Messianic salvation, in a word, Jumping ahead, if I might, the scope of messianic salvation is the redemption of the cosmos. There will come a time when Christ comes again, when everything is made new. when there will be no more fossil record left on earth because everything that is symbolic and emblematic and is itself death or a taste and a reminder of death is completely and utterly eradicated. In fact, we read of this in the book of Revelation when the earth is refined by fire. And what God is doing in your heart and in your life, refining you by his fire, God will do, he will sanctify all the earth. That is something that only God can do. We cannot do this. And we read of it even in the book of Corinthians when Paul says that one day Christ will come and he will defeat the final enemy that we cannot defeat, that enemy that is death. And every vestige of death will be taken away from the cosmos. No more dying stars. Nothing will die. All will be made new. That is the scope of messianic salvation. Now, I don't think Zacharias or Zechariah had those things necessarily in mind, but what he does have in mind is here the fulfillment of the things I spoke about even this morning. He speaks in singing a doxology to God, verse 68, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began. There has always been a prophetic voice. When Adam named his wife Eve, the mother of all living, he did so in some fashion in the role of a prophet because he believed God that Eve and those born of Eve out of that line would come the seed that would crush the head of the serpent. Noah, what was his job before he became a shipbuilder? And even during that time, he was a preacher. We read of this later in the New Testament. He was a prophet. And what was Noah doing for a hundred years on earth as he built the ark? And even prior to that, he was endeavoring to bring others out of the coming judgment. It was not up to God's electing purposes that that would happen. And even from Noah's own family, Ham and his wife would apostatize. There have always been prophets. He speaks of Abraham, Father Abraham. And so as long as there has been a promise, as long as there has been covenant, there has been a prophet. There have been those who have declared the coming of the Messiah who would bring to nothing The work and the frustrating power, the deception and accusation of the great enemy of the people of God. And that one who would come would wield regal authority. Verse 69. He would be a king. He would be a servant, a son of David. In fact, he would be born of the family of David. And in what way would his royal salvation be experienced? Well, when we think of Christ and his office of king, we actually have a way of understanding this. We speak of Christ as king, as the one who rules us and has delivered us and is delivering us from all of his and our enemies. Now that deliverance is experienced body and soul. There is a physical element to that and there is a spiritual element to that. Christ came, and we speak of Him as having a human body and a reasonable soul. This is part of His humanity. And so His deliverance is body and soul. And in as much as Christ's royal deliverance is body and soul, we see it politically come. We see the nations bowing to Him. We see nations transformed by the preaching of the gospel. Even prior to the coming of Christ, Nineveh, a whole city, repented in dust, cloth, and ash. Even the oxen mourned. How do oxen mourn? Because the covenant heads of those oxen, think of the law of God, on the Sabbath who rests, even the oxen, by whose decree? By the ones who keep them. This is what redeemed animal husbandry is. It is the whole house keeps the Lord's day. It is that the whole house is used in honor and service to the Messiah. And not just the home, not just the church, but nations. We call rulers to keep covenant with God. Why? Because as those who are agents of morality, they are called by God to legislate, to rule, to reign. in covenant steadfastness and faithfulness with God. And what happens when rulers do that? What happens when pastors and elders and deacons do that? What happens when fathers do that? God opens up the floodgates of heaven and he rains down blessing upon them. And all of this in service to and in fear of the named King of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ. Now again, a lot of this fullness of what the Messiah will do and what he is coming to do is taught later, even in the epistles, as they are helping us to understand all the promises from the Old Testament. And so Zacharias knows something of what Christ will do. He knows the heart of it. He knows that part that is essential for salvation. But can you imagine if Zacharias were to get a glimpse of the glory and saving power of the gospel that has been let loose upon the world? That there are people who are very far from the kingdom 2,000 years ago, who are not only near the kingdom, but they are in the kingdom. They are members of the nation, the church, that people group made up of every tribe, tongue, and nation that now belong to Jesus Christ. Even today, for 24 hours, the church gathers together, and the Psalms are being sung, and the Scripture is being read, and there are confessions that are being made in hundreds of languages. In places that you and I will never visit that are very strange to us, but they are, by right of the unifying work of the Holy Spirit, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The scope of Messianic salvation is total. It is total and entire. And what Zacharias is looking forward to, even as he has seen in his own life this glorious miracle wrought, and the gift of a miracle son who is the forerunner for Jesus Christ, is that these things, as I said this morning, are about to happen. He's so excited. He is so overwhelmed with joy in light of what God is doing to perform, verse 72, the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant in accordance with what? What He has already said. It's not a new covenant. It's an ancient covenant with ancient prophets, with ancient promises. All of this God has promised. a public and personal salvation. The kingdom of God is made up of those whom God has in His time by the Spirit brought into His kingdom. But the harvest is made up of little individual stands of wheat, and that is what individuals are. The field is white unto harvest because it is filled to the full with those whom God will in His time bring into His harvest, into His house. But it is not just men. It is all that God has made. We will see the redemption and the fullness of Christ's redeeming work experienced in architecture. No more cinder block buildings. Right? Everything will be hewn from beautiful wood. It will be in honor of Christ and his kingdom. Now, I can't say that with certainty, right? I guess Cinderblock makes a good foundation, but what do you put on top of it? Certainly no more Planned Parenthood clinics, right? No more institutions devoted to distortion, to destruction, to the erasure of the human race. No, the kingdom of Christ will be seen manifestly in the redemption of the human race. And not just the human race, but all that God has made. It is a complete and entire cosmos scope salvation. And we have seen it. We have seen it. We have seen the salvation of the gospel of the kingdom that John himself was called to preach. And we have seen what it can do in accordance with God's decrees. This is a song worth singing. And it should be the theme of all of our songs and all of our labors. This doxology is one that should be a perpetual fixture, not only in the hearts of the saints, but in the lives of the saints together. It should be a fixture in the lives of all men, and this is why Christ came. Because we can only sing this song when we have been given eyes to see and ears to hear the redeeming work, the glory and power and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the scope of Messianic salvation. What about the purpose? Well, it is to free us from something. It is a song that free men and free women sing, is it not? It is a song that our children sing even before they understand the words that are coming out of their mouth. They are singing of the deliverance that only Christ can bring. And so they have never known a time in their lives when their mouths are not filled with the glories and the saving power and mercy of our God. Now, what are we freed from? Well, Christ's death has freed us first from the wrath and terror of the judgment of almighty God. Christ is our propitiation. Now that's a fancy word that just means that Christ in his death has quieted the wrath of God against us. And the way that he does this is he gives us his righteousness so that we are no longer sinful in the eyes of almighty God and God sees us for the righteousness of Christ and he is pleased with us. And he adopts us. And so there is never a time in our lives as adopted children where we do not call God Father, even when He is displeased because of our sins. But God does not cast us off. He does not say, all right, you're done. You're not part of this family anymore. No, what does He do? He deals with us as a father would. He punishes us. He removes the light of His countenance from us for a time that we might know our sin and that we are brought to a low estate. And then He, by His Spirit, convicts us of our sins and He restores us to right fellowship. We get to come back to the table, as it were. And that is what the table is, a sign of God's persistent affection and why it is we should keep short accounts. God, well, Christ, the Messiah, frees us from the judgment of Almighty. But not only that, but he frees us from the fiery arrows of the evil one. He frees us from the accusations of the evil one. He frees us from the reign of tyranny of the evil one. And so we are not only free from condemnation, but we are free from the power of the great enemy of God's people, Satan. And he can't touch us. He cannot remove us out of right fellowship with God. Yet Satan still tries to do this, doesn't he? To accuse the brethren. And he does this either by working among those at times whose wills are weak, whose minds are weak, either because we have sinned, and we do deserve punishment, and we are sinners, but the kinds of accusations that Satan brings in response even to our sins is, how could God ever love you? Why do you think God would continue to love you because of this? And so what ought we do? We ought to lay hold of Christ, as some would say, by our baptism, by the promises that He has made to us, that we are to remember that we are His children. And there is not an accusation that Satan can bring against us that God does not already know, that Christ has not already died for. And in light of Christ's resurrection, these accusations that Satan brings, he does not bring them to the throne of heaven. He brings them to us. He can't do what he did in the book of Job anymore. Don't listen to him. And so when Satan comes to tempt you to despair, what ought you do? Well, I'm a good guy. I helped 75 old ladies across the road last week, which I don't know where you do that in a place like Gaston County. In fact, if there's old ladies crossing the road in Gaston County, something is desperately wrong. There's nowhere you can do that, maybe downtown. But we don't have a plea with God before the throne because of works done in the flesh, right? Our plea is what? Satan, shut your mouth. Christ has paid for all my sins. I am free. It is not confidence done in the flesh, but the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. So all of this is built up in this glorious song, this prophecy of what Christ, verse 74, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear. And not only from temptation, but what does Christ say? Do not fear the one who can kill the body, but fear the one who can kill the body and send the soul to hell. But if Christ is for us, what does He then say? Who can be against us? Behold, I hold you in the palm of my hand and no one can take you out of my hand. No one can take you out of my Father's hand. To free us from something, judgment and accusation, but also free us to something or for something. To be servants in the house of God, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. And in fact, John is emblematic. He is, in some respects, the first great priestly prophetic servant of the Most High. And he kind of bridges the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints. John is a picture of what God had in store for the Old Testament saints, and he is, in some fashion, a template for the New Testament saints. Sent out as a prophet into the world to declare, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. We are saved for this. You don't hide a light and put it under a bushel, do you? In fact, not only as individuals, but as a church, we are a city on a hill. And what do cities do but radiate the light that comes as a citizenry devoted to a certain task in a city that is built upon the rock that is Christ Jesus, that has the light of Christ living and indwelling us, we shine that light before men. Now we as individuals have a little bit of light, don't we? But when we come together, what happens when you take one light bulb and put it in a room? There's a little bit of light, but what happens when you take a hundred, right? We've had a hundred saints here before on Sunday. How much brighter the light when we come together? And this is not a light that is ours. It has been given to us freely by Christ. It doesn't come from us. It is shown in us and through us because Christ is the light of men. Well, John's father, Zacharias, turns in verse 76 to speak of his own son, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God with which the day spring, this is where the lyric comes, day spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. The purpose of messianic salvation is to bring about light through his prophets unto the furthering of the proclamation that Christ has come to free us. Now, John's role historically is unique as John the baptizer. John was not a Baptist. John was not a Presbyterian. John was a baptizer. And he baptized for this reason. The kingdom of God was at hand. And in this way, he, again, was unique. He was a bridge between the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament, the sign and seal of the covenant of grace was circumcision, but John came baptizing in the name of Christ as an indicator that this turn, the very hinge The door was opening. Now, there were many in the days of John who did not believe. We know this because Israel, almost to the man, there were some who believed, but there were many who did not. Many heard John's preaching and they despised it. In fact, John was ultimately killed because he spoke out against Herod's immorality. And his head was served on a silver platter to the ruler of that area. as punishment for his meddling in the immorality of Herod. Prior to that time when he was silenced, he was a voice crying in the wilderness, make way, prepare, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And in the same way that Noah was a preacher, right? Get on the boat, the rain's coming. In the same way many before and after Proclaim the glories of the coming of the kingdom of Christ. In this fashion, we are not John the baptizer, but we are of the same mission. We belong to the same mission. Now, we do not proclaim as those who go preparing a way for Christ, no. We go as those who have seen Christ, historically speaking. Christ has come. 2,000 years ago, Christ came. And he came for the sake of giving, verse 77, to give knowledge of salvation to his people. Whose people? His people, his chosen people, his beloved people, those whom he had set his eternal divine affections upon. There was never a time when God did not know and love his children, though they had not even come to be. This is the nature of God's eternal, faithful, electing purposes. Verse 78, through the tender mercy of God. What is that which compelled God to send his Son into the world? The Father. Tender mercy. You see, God sent the Son into a world not filled with people who are ready to receive Christ for any other reason than God was merciful to them. If you were ready, it was because God had shown in your heart What? Grace? And a willingness to receive a Savior for your sins. This, again, is the product of God's tender mercy. Christ here, the Dayspring from on high. Why is He the Dayspring? Because He is the fountain of light and life. And in the way that Adam lost, Christ will find it. In Adam, all sin, in Christ, all are made alive. Christ has come, verse 79, to give light to those who sit in darkness. This holiday season, I want you to think of those who even now sit in darkness and ask yourself, how has God sent me into their lives to prepare a way for the Lord? What do I say? Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And there will be some of those who are God's chosen people, who will see it, and they will believe, and they themselves will become worshipers. And they will sing like Zacharias, won't they? They will sing of the one full of goodness, truth, and beauty, full of light and life, and they will embrace him as Lord. And all of a sudden, life takes on a whole new meaning. But this is only something that Christ can do. And so it begins with us, what is our response to revelation? Will we sing? Will we rejoice? Will we do so in such a way that our song is heard by others who are not singing, whose eyes remain shut, whose hearts remain cold, whose ears they cannot hear, whose mouths they cannot speak? That praise be to God that Christ is in the business of bringing life from death.