Blessing The Faithful God - [Luke 1:57-66]

Well, if you ask most people what is Christianity, they'll probably tell you it's a religion that stresses being good, to live a moral life.

It reminds me of Aesop's fable. Remember Hercules and the Wagoneer? How many people know

Hercules and the Wagoneer? Not many. How many people know John 3 .16 better? I'll take that.

But if you were to read Hercules and the Wagoneer, the Wagoneer was a man in a wagon and he was stuck in the mud and he just kept trying harder and harder to get out with the horses and couldn't get out of this mire.

And so he thought he would pray to Hercules and he cried out to Hercules, help me in my hour of distress.

And Hercules responds, according to Aesop, and he says, man don't sprawl there, get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.

And of course, with Aesop's fables, there's a moral to the story. And what's the moral of the story of the

Wagoneer and Hercules? And the answer is, self -help is the best help.

The moral is, heaven helps those who help themselves. The moral is, gods help them that help themselves.

Don't you think that pretty much sums up today? It sums up evangelicalism sometimes today.

And so this morning we are going to look at a passage that will remind us that salvation doesn't come from ourselves.

If you drive a car, it's called an automobile because it's self -driving. And certainly if I say auto -sotirism, self -salvation, we realize at Bethlehem Bible Church, that is not true.

Obviously, Jesus wants us to live a moral life as Christians, but that's not the sum, that's not the essence, that's not what

Christianity is. Matter of fact, if you could get to heaven by being good, why would the

Father send the Son at all? Christ would have died, Galatians 2, for no purpose.

And as you know, if you've been here for some time and if you're a visitor, just visiting with us on this weekend, welcome. We are going verse by verse through the

Gospel of Jesus according to Luke. So if you have a Bible, turn your Bible to Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the four

Gospels in the New Testament, and it's our custom here to just simply preach through the passages, and one after another after another in a continuous fashion so that we don't miss any richness found in God's Word.

Now we're in chapter 1, but before we get to chapter 1, I'd like you to turn your Bible to chapter 19, please, as I set the stage for our passage today.

In seminary or Bible school, or even in my preaching class, sometimes I would ask the students, or I would be asked by my professor, what's the key verse in this book?

What's the key verse in Galatians to unlock it? Is there a key verse in Mark, for instance, so that we understand the entire book with the key verse?

And you can do that through every book of the Bible if you want. If it was Mark, it would be chapter 10, verse 45, that Jesus didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

And so one of the things that you could do on your own is you could say, I'd like to know a key verse that helps me summarize every book of the

Bible. Because if you know that key verse, it helps you understand that book in the Bible. So if we're going to go to Luke, chapter 1, and we're working through Luke week by week,

I'm guessing five years or so will be in Luke. I'm not exactly sure, but it is the longest book in the

New Testament, after all, and it's so rich, and it's all about the Lord Jesus. If I ask you the question, what's the key verse in Luke?

What's the theme verse? What summarizes who Jesus is and what he does, so that you can understand every other passage in light of the theme?

Because the theme drives everything. And that is found in Luke 19 .10, and I think you probably already know that.

Do you want to know what the summary is, the theme, or the key to this book, to help you understand all of the book, including the early chapters?

It's found in Luke 19 .10. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

He came to rescue transgressors. He came to rescue sinners. He came to rescue those trespassers.

The sovereign initiative of Jesus, that reminds me of Luke 5, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

If you understand this verse, you can understand all of the gospel of Luke. Really, all of the gospel in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Jesus' mission is briefly stated, to seek and save the lost. Why did

Jesus come? To seek and save the lost. Some have called this the golden text of Luke.

Why do they say that? Because this is the theme. And of course, if we could save ourselves, or if we could be good to get in heaven, why send

Jesus on the rescue mission? I love Ezekiel 36. Does this sound familiar?

God speaking. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.

Thus says the Lord God, behold, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

No other shepherd could do it, so God himself seeks and searches out his sheep.

D .L. Moody said of this passage in Luke 19, to me, Luke 19 .10 is one of the sweetest verses in all the

Bible. In this one short sentence, we are told what Christ came into the world for.

He came for a purpose. He came for a work. Not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

And other writers say, this is so wonderful, you don't even have two syllables in any word here. It's just single syllables in the

English. He came to seek and save the lost. As a matter of fact, Christian, he came to seek you.

He came to search and find you. He rescued you. I think we sing about that, don't we?

He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood.

And of course, this passage has a context. Remember, Jesus goes to Jericho in John 19, and he's passing through, and there's a lovely man whose name is

Pure and Righteous. Well, his name was Zacchaeus, but that means pure or righteous.

But he wasn't pure, he wasn't righteous. He was a tax collector and a sinner. If you just look up just a few verses above Luke 19 .10,

you can see chapter 19 .1. He's in Jericho, Jesus is. He sees Zacchaeus. He's a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

And of course, it's hard for rich people to get into heaven. Jesus just said that in the chapter before with the rich young ruler.

It's impossible for people to get saved if they're rich, but with God, everything's possible. Here's a possibility right here.

Zacchaeus, the rich sinner, the tax collector. And Jesus says to Zacchaeus, remember, you can remember the kids song even,

Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because I must stay at your house today. And by the way, when Jesus comes to seek and save sinners, most of the religious leaders are so happy because that's why religious leaders are leaders, because they want everybody to be right with God.

But not these religious leaders. What did they say? They grumbled. He's gone in to be the guest of a man who's a sinner.

Now we say sinner generally, we're all sinners and we fall short of the glory of God. But this is a particular word that means disgraceful, despicable, despised.

I mean, he's a traitor. He's Zacchaeus and now he's taking money, giving it to the Roman government.

They're grumbling. Of course, the Greek word for grumble sounds like grumble.

What's the Greek word for grumble? I know Charlie Crane knows this. Gungusmus. Good job. Gungusmus.

Gungusmus. It's below the surface. They're just complaining. Jesus is saving sinners.

He's eating with sinners. He's not going to condone what they do. He's a physician of sinners. As Luke is a physician for temporal needs,

Jesus is a physician for spiritual needs. Of course he's going to sit with them. Not to say it's fine, but to rescue.

Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners, to proclaim, what's the next line?

Hallelujah. What a Savior. And Jesus says in verse 9, today salvation has come to this house since he's also a son of Abraham.

And here's the theme of it all, for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. That is

Christianity. Not do good, not be good, but it's the rescue mission of the astounding kind Lord Jesus sent by the loving

Father. Spurgeon said, Christ does not leave it to ourselves to seek him, or else it would be left indeed.

For so vile is human nature that although heaven be offered, and though hell thunder in our ears, yet there never was and never will be any man who, unconstrained by sovereign grace, will run in the way of salvation and so escape from hell and flee to heaven.

The only hope is Jesus who comes to rescue. And so Luke says, I have good news.

And it's called the gospel. I have good news that Jesus comes to seek and save the lost. And of course if you're a

Christian you can think, thank you Lord for seeking me and saving me. And I was running my own path and you intercepted.

And if you're not a Christian here, this is the mission that Jesus comes to seek and save sinners like you. If you have loved ones who aren't saved, you think, there's a

God who seeks and a God who saves. If you'd like to know the theme of Luke so you can understand everything else in Luke, it's this.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Now the response to that should be certainly praise.

Aren't you glad, Christian, you don't have to go to hell? Aren't you glad you get heaven? Aren't you glad you get the

Spirit of God, fellowship, the Bible, etc.? Yes. What's the response to this rescue mission?

A desire to evangelize? Certainly. We want to tell others about the good news. What's the response to such a

Savior? To honor Him by the way we live, godly lives, out of thanksgiving. But is there any other thing we should respond with when it comes to this great salvation?

And the answer is yes. It makes me want to learn all about this salvation.

It makes me want to understand it more. Matter of fact, it makes me want to go back to the beginning to learn all about this.

I know this doesn't make perfect sense in terms of an illustration, one -to -one, but when Kim and I met, somebody introduced us, etc.,

in a certain place and time. As the children are older now, sometimes they like to hear the story. How did you and mom meet?

Give us all the details. What was that lady's name who was in the cult who said she knew Jesus? Her name used to be

Sharon, and now it's Aria. How did you get introduced by this lady in this cult, etc., etc.? They want to know the details because they're thinking, the

Lord's put these two together, tell me the story. Don't just start with, I do, and the marriage, how'd you meet?

Probably talk to couples like that all the time. Tell me your story. And so when you know Jesus seeks and saves the lost, it makes you want to say,

I want to know the story from the beginning. Don't just tell me about his life and death and resurrection.

Yes, tell me about those things, but not only those things. So Luke says in his preface in chapter one, you know what?

We're going to start from the beginning. We're going to start from the very beginning so you can just say, Jesus, he did it all, and look at only

God, a sovereign God, could put all these things together with Zachariah and Elizabeth and the baby and John and Mary and the virgin and overshadowing with the

Holy Spirit and conceive God -man, pure, blameless. Tell me all the details.

When you know you're saved and when you're sought after by God's redeeming love, you don't want to just dive into the end or the middle.

You want to know about the beginning. So let's go back to Luke chapter one. I tell my preaching students, you want to get to your passage in about three minutes.

And so we're 12 minutes in, but I was preaching the Bible. Did I not preach Luke 19? Yes, I did.

And so all this to set up, we come to passages in the Bible, knowing the theme, he seeks and saves the lost, so we can understand the details.

And Luke makes it very clear in chapter one, verses one through four, that he's going to make an eyewitness account. He's a doctor.

He wants things set up very orderly, and he's going to set it up so that you might be certain that this is in fact the

Christ and that you could have hope of forgiveness when you trust in him alone. I love all the details about the marvelous grace of God, the

Father, God, the Son, and God, the Spirit. It's like the hymn, grace to the charming sound, harmonious to the ear.

Heaven with the echo shall resound and all the earth shall hear. Today we're going to look at Luke chapter one, verses 57 through 66.

We finished the Magnificat last week, Mary's praising the Lord, my soul magnifies the Lord, and now we come to the birth of John the

Baptist. Dear congregation, a question. If you have any of verses 57 through 66 underlined or highlighted in your electronic tablet, phone, or underlined with a pencil, yellow marker, or anything else, would you raise your hand if you have any part of this underlined?

One. Oh, two. Three. Four. Okay, good. I feel like I'm at an auction or something.

That's wonderful, but you four probably underline everything in the Bible. Remember when

Haley was little, every verse was underlined. I'm like, yes, that's good. So, of course, it's all

God breathed, right? We know that from Second Timothy chapter three, and sometimes you just think, oh,

Mary's praise, that's underlined, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. But how do you preach a passage that hardly anyone underlines?

It just doesn't seem to like really jump off where you think, oh, I just can't wait to camp on this passage and figure this out.

I call this the remarkable unmarked passage. The remarkable unmarked passage that after you hear it preached, not because of me,

I'm a no one, I'm frail and sinful, as you know, but because of the text, you're going to say, that's a remarkable passage, and I should probably have it marked.

By the way, I give you permission by the authority vested in me to take a pencil and mark in your Bible. It's okay.

Don't ever use a yellow marker, though. It's blasphemy. No, you do whatever you want.

I have no authority over you marking your Bible. I'm just glad you read your Bibles. It's a remarkable passage that's typically unmarked.

So we're going to work through this passage today. Here's my outline. And I'm going to ask you a series of questions about this passage and about the

God of this passage to help you understand the Lord better through this section. Super simple.

I have eight questions. We'll see how far I get. Maybe we can get through the whole thing. We'll see. We're in no rush.

Eight questions designed for you to say, that's a remarkable passage. And it's not going to be just data about the passage.

We're going to think about this in context and where it is in the theme of Luke and why Luke wrote it so that we can understand who

God is. Because this passage isn't here just for history, just for us to dissect. It's here for you.

It's written for you. It's written for me so that we might understand God better and respond. Eight questions about a remarkable unmarked passage that hopefully will drive you to think, oh, thank you,

Lord. You came to seek and save a sinner like me. Question number one, is

God faithful? Question number one in this remarkable unmarked passage, is

God faithful? Verse 57 of Luke chapter one. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son.

Now, of course, if you're reading too fast, you're like, okay, yes. Time for a son. She bore a son.

But of course, you're remembering, aren't you? Earlier in chapter one. And you're remembering, aren't you?

400 years before chapter one, where Malachi had said, inspired by the spirit, the forerunner is going to come.

And if there's a forerunner, there's an after runner. If there's a forerunner, there's a runner.

If there's somebody who's leading, there's someone who comes next. And so when John the Baptist comes, everybody get ready because the

Messiah is going to come. It came time for her to give birth. Okay, nine months or so, she bore a son.

If this son's going to come, the Messiah is going to come. And by the way, you should be thinking God is faithful because go back to chapter one, verse 13.

You can see right there in your own text, but the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.

And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John. God says through Gabriel, there's going to be a son to be born.

His name is John. And guess what? Old Baron Elizabeth bears a son.

God's faithful. God keeps his word. I love the song by Isaac Watts, happy the man whose hopes rely on Israel's God.

He made the sky. His truth forever stands secure. He saves the oppressed.

He feeds the poor and none shall find his promises vain. I mean, even

Zechariah's name, God has remembered. God is faithful. And by the way, if you begin to think to yourself,

I wonder if God's faithful to the little people in the world, to the minute people, not just kings and queens and royalty and others.

I mean, could there be anyone more insignificant than Elizabeth? Mover? No.

Shaker? No. God is faithful. God is unchanging. And that means Christian, God is faithful to you.

When you read, God kept a promise to Elizabeth and to John, you should be thinking, yes, he's a promise keeping

God. He keeps his promises. He's faithful. Did you know,

Christian, God's never been unfaithful to you? God has never failed you one time.

He's never been unfaithful to you. Not once. I don't care what the doctor's results say.

I don't care about deaths in the family. I don't care about any of that. With tears in her eyes and though he slay me, yet I'll trust in him.

God is faithful. That's one of the first things you should see out of this passage. The faithfulness of God.

John is writing, the physician is writing, so that you might have certainty. God's keeping his promise.

In the Old Testament, in Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9 and Malachi 4, God keeps his promise. Ralph Davis tells about this great story about God's faithfulness to his own people.

Lower Manhattan. Fall of 1874 in a little flat. Somebody knocks on a door.

The blind woman answers. The person said, hold out your hand, and the person put a folded up piece of paper into her hand.

It turned out to be $10, and she had prayed for $10 to pay the rent. By the way, that tells you a little bit about rent now, going up in 1874.

She prayed that the Lord would supply her need, and here a man shows up at the door. She didn't know who he was.

She didn't even know it was $10, because she couldn't feel it. And she said, you know what? I'm going to write a song about God's faithfulness today because of that happened.

And here's what she wrote. I think you know the song. Fanny Crosby. All the way my Savior leads me, what have

I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide?

For I know whate 'er befall me, Jesus does all things well.

I think, Christian, you can say that. Can you not? We ought to be saying that. Joshua 21.

Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made of the house of Israel has failed. Not one promise.

For as many of the promises of God, 2 Corinthians, one in Him, Christ Jesus, they're yes and amen.

God is faithful. His promises are faithful. They're reliable. Hebrews 10. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

For he who promised is faithful. God doesn't lie.

He's faithful. Look back in your life. God, you've been faithful. Think about your life today.

God, you've been faithful. I wonder what he'll be in the future. Maybe he'll fall asleep.

Maybe he'll take a trip. Maybe he won't care about you. No, no, and no. God is faithful.

Matthew Henry said, though men are false, God is faithful. Of course, we love to sing that song.

Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. Almost all

I've needed, you've provided almost. Okay is your faithfulness.

Changing is your faithfulness. Once in a while, you're faithful. I begin to wonder, if you're not reading the

Bible here in this section, in this, you know, carved off place, let me give you the data for this.

We see it in light of scripture. What is Luke trying to drive you to do? When you're reading about the promises of God kept for other people, you should say,

God is faithful even to me. And by the way, he will be so faithful that he will get you, dear

Christian, struggling Christian, weak Christian, all the way to heaven. He will get you to glory.

First John 2, and now little children abide in him so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

I mean, all the sins we commit, you think there'd be shame when he comes, but we abide in him.

We trust in him. We're believers in him. And therefore that Lord, the advocate, the propitiatory advocate talked about earlier in first John 2, we'll make sure we get home all the way.

No shame at his coming. Question two, how do we look at this remarkable unmarked passage and just think about it and mull it over a little bit?

Well, question one, is God faithful? Question two, what's the response to God's faithfulness?

How do we respond to God's faithfulness? And of course, the last two weeks, I've tried to make it very clear that there's this, there's this movement back and forth when it comes to God showing himself either in nature or through the word, doing deeds when

Jesus was on the earth. And then the response, revelation response. We see a beautiful sky and we say, wow, look at that sky.

We see a sunset, that's incredible. You go to the Grand Canyon, wow, there's revelation in general, in nature, and we respond with, that's awesome.

Same thing when it comes to revelation, that's specific, found in the Bible. And here you'll see that revelation demands a response.

I wonder what their response was to God's faithfulness. Probably should be our response to God's faithfulness.

Let's see. Verse 58, and her neighbors and relatives heard that the

Lord had shown great mercy to her. And what's the response to faithfulness? What's the response to God keeping his promise?

What's the response to a merciful God? They rejoiced with her. Do you see it?

Now, remember earlier in chapter one, verse 46, Mary said, my soul magnifies the

Lord. That's a great translation. My soul magnifies the Lord. He's great.

And I put a magnifying glass up, not to change who he is, not to make him more great, but just so I can see an intricate detail.

Sadly, the ESV and NAS don't translate this like they should. The legacy standard does, and I give them credit for that.

Here's how it should be translated. With the exact same word found in the Magnificat, her neighbors and her relatives heard that the

Lord had magnified his great mercy toward her and they were rejoicing. Oh, magnify the

Lord, Mary says. And here we have God magnifying who he is for Elizabeth.

And what's the response? Praise. Rejoicing. It's right there in verse 58. They rejoiced.

Look back at verse 13 of the same chapter. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid,

Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son. You will call his name John and you will have what?

What's the response to the work of God? Joy. What's the response to God's sovereign hand? Gladness.

And many will rejoice at his birth. The neighbors come, the relatives come.

I'm sure the neighbors have been hearing what is going on with this barren woman who is now going to have a child.

We have to come and see this. God has magnified his mercy toward her. Everywhere you go in Luke chapter 1, mercy, his mercy is for those who fear him.

Chapter 1 verse 50, verse 54, in remembrance of his mercy. Verse 72, to show mercy promised to the fathers.

Verse 78, the tender mercy of our God. God is so merciful. Remember, sometimes we think mercy is

I don't get what I deserve. Alright, I guess generally speaking that could be true. But mercy is when

God sees we're in a condition that we can't rescue ourselves. We're in a condition we can't have a baby at 90.

We meaning you ladies. I'm going to refrain from going off on a rabbit trail.

The best classes though, seminary classes and even high school classes, and others were when the teacher got off on a rabbit trail.

Those seem to be the most entertaining. But I'm not here to entertain, so let's get back at this. God looks at us and says if I don't intervene, there's nothing going to happen except doom.

So I will intervene. That's called mercy. But God being rich in mercy, Ephesians chapter 2, with the great love with which he loved us.

They respond. God's mercy is not some general thing floating around here.

It's concrete. The baby's born. The relatives know. The friends know. The neighborhood knows.

The town knows. And they all rejoice. I love 1 Samuel 12. Fear the Lord. Serve him in truth with all your heart.

For consider the great things he's done for you. Kindness and mercy leads to rejoicing.

God's faithfulness leads to rejoicing. God has been faithful to you. God has been faithful to me.

How should we respond? And the answer is with rejoicing. Same for us. Literally, here in the original, it's rejoicing with.

To rejoice with. And a lot of commentators say, joy needs fellowship.

Because if something that incredible has happened to you, don't you want other people involved to share the joy and to chip in with the joy and to say, yes, that's true.

God is faithful and the response to God's faithfulness should be joy. Question 3 in this remarkable unmarked passage.

God is faithful. We respond with joy. Number 3, is obedience important? Is obedience important?

There's always the risk of so highlighting sovereign grace and mercy and love that people might think, well,

I just get to do whatever I want to do. If I'm saved only by the works of Jesus and you are, then what does it matter how

I work? Of course, we know that's improper thinking. God says you're never saved by your own works, but out of gratitude for being saved by Christ's works, we want to obey.

We want to honor the Lord with our lives and to live a holy life and a blameless life in his eyes.

Is obedience important for the Christian? The answer is, of course. And you see these Old Testament believers respond here with obedience.

It's good for us to be reminded that obedience is important. Christ's obedience saves us.

Our obedience is the fruit of his work, out of gratitude. Verse 59, is obedience important?

Of course it is. Verse 59, and on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him

Zechariah after his father. Now, of course, there are

Jewish people here, and they know on what day must you circumcise a baby. Well, we realize that now when we go to hospitals, they might circumcise on the first day, but for the

Jews, circumcision was commanded for the eighth day.

Right? Genesis 17, every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants.

Eighth day circumcision. Paul, remember, even boasted in Philippians 3, I was circumcised on the seventh day.

No, I was circumcised on the eighth day. And they would have called his name

Zechariah after his father, but God didn't say to do that. What did God say to call him? Answer? Junior.

No. Zachy. Little Zach. No, you can see where this is all driving toward.

They obey with the eighth day circumcision, like every Jew must be circumcised, every

Jewish boy circumcised on the eighth day. And it says they would have called him Zechariah after his father.

If you study Ruth chapter 4, sometimes the whole neighbors get together to try to help name a child.

No, the child has already been named by God, sent by Gabriel. If you just flip forward to chapter 2, verse 21, with the parallel passage with Jesus getting circumcised, what day do you think

Jesus got circumcised? 221, at the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called

Jesus. Sometimes you name a baby when they're born. Sometimes you name a baby when they're circumcised.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus named on the day they were circumcised. There's even more obedience we see here.

But his mother answered, verse 60, no, he shall be called John. They said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name.

I mean, it was immediate. She just said it's knee jerk. No, that's not right. And as we try to tell our children, of course we can tell ourselves, delayed obedience is disobedience.

Well, how does she know if her husband was struck with the chastening hand of God and he can't talk?

Well, he certainly could write, and we'll see that later. She knows from her husband, it was only the husband to whom

Gabriel showed up to in the temple. She says with very strong Greek, no,

I'm not going to do it. Not at all. I'm not going to do that. Because the angel in chapter 1, verse 13 says his name is going to be

John. By the way, John means

God is gracious. Yahweh is gracious. That's the name you give.

Doesn't matter if no relatives have been named that. In my family, my grandfather was

Henry, Hank, and his son was named Lee, my father, and Lee gets the middle name of the father, so it's

Lee Henry. My name's Michael, I get my dad's first name, Michael Lee. Luke is born, and Luke gets what for a middle name?

Luke Michael. And all of a sudden, there's these kind of traditions that happened back then, and what do you mean you're not going to name the child after you?

We're not going to do this. We're going to obey God. Look, there's more obedience.

Verse 62, they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called.

I mean, if Elizabeth can't figure it out, maybe John can. I mean, excuse me, Zechariah can. But here, not only was

Elizabeth obedient, so was Zechariah. Not a second lost.

Now, here's kind of something interesting. I'm not going to get bogged down in the weeds. Reread verse 62 with me as I read it, or just, you know, in your mind, and they made signs to his father inquiring what he wanted him to be called.

Wait, I thought he couldn't talk. Now it sounds like he can't hear either. Why are you making signs to him?

Well, people try to figure out what's going on here. Spurgeon said he was deaf and dumb.

I'll only disagree with Spurgeon once a year, so here's my once a year. You can't find this word that has a double meaning anywhere in the

New Testament. Plus, when Zechariah received the chasing hand of God, it said in verse 20 and 22, you will remain silent and not be able to speak.

And when he came out, he was unable to speak. And in verse 64, if you look ahead a little bit, and immediately his mouth was open and his tongue loosed, and he spoke.

He didn't say anything about his ears. So I have no idea why, I don't know,

I mean, I'm just trying to think in my mind, he was only mute. What is this whole making signs to his father?

And the only thing I can come up with, and don't hold me to this, if you've ever met somebody in another country and you don't speak their language, and I'm in Germany, I'm in a

German province in Germany and all of a sudden, I just start talking louder when

I'm talking. I'm asking for directions to go over there to the tower. Like somehow they can hear me in a different language if I just speak louder.

I mean, maybe it's something like that, I have no idea, but the chasing hand of God was, you're mute, you can't speak, and he does the right thing, he can speak.

You can study that on your own. He, verse 63, asked for a writing tablet.

You just see obedience permeating everything here. His name is John, not will be, no, no, his name is

John. And they all wondered. Back in those days, if you had a little tablet and you put a bunch of wax on the top, you could take any kind of little stylus, a stick, or anything else, you could kind of write in the wax, and after you write in the wax, you could kind of make the wax flat again, and then you could take the stylus or the stick or whatever you had to kind of engrave, and then write.

So that's probably what he was doing. I kept thinking to myself, when I was a kid, we had those

Etch -a -Sketch, yeah, or those other things where you would write on top of the plastic, and then you'd go like that, and it would erase it all.

Yeah, you with me? I have a tablet now, by the way, just to let you know.

I hope it doesn't crash. His name's

God is Gracious. And lots of times in the Bible, you'll see people named for what they're going to do.

Think Harry, right? And you have Jacob and Esau, the heel snatcher.

What they'll do in the future. God's Gracious. By the way, John the

Baptist. God is gracious by sending John the Baptist to warn people that the wrath is coming.

Seek the Savior. Judgment is going to happen. You'll die one day and stand before God.

Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand. Isn't it gracious when people present the demands of God?

I mean, I think even in my own life, that people that preach to me the law of God, God's holiness reflected in the law, to make me realize

I could no way measure up to that, so I'm going to need to seek a Savior who did measure up to the law, and who did die for sinners like me.

His name's going to be God is Gracious, because He is going to be gracious. He's going to tell people, flee from the wrath of God.

And of course for us, as we see the obedience found here, I hope you just don't say, I'm glad they're obedient. I hope you say to yourself, yes, obedience is good.

Obedience is right. I know Christian obedience is important to you. Our statement of faith, chapter 16, says these good works, done in obedience to God's commands, are fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith, and by them believers manifest.

Why do we do good works? Not to get saved, not to stay saved, but to manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren,

God doesn't need our good works, but our brothers and sisters do, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of adversaries, and glorify

God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus. Is obedience important?

The answer is yes. Question four, there's no way I'm going to make all eight, okay?

That's okay, these are important truths, we're in no rush. I have some friends, they've been preaching an hour and ten minute sermons, an hour and twenty minute sermons.

I'd rather make the folks say, I wish he'd keep going, versus, why doesn't he land the plane?

I'm also thinking about nursery workers. By the way, if you pick up your children in the nursery or preschool today, would you thank the teachers back there, because they're letting you, by their service, come in here.

God is faithful, we respond with joy and praise. Obedience is important.

Question four, what is the Christian's main motivation for obedience? What is the

Christian's main motivation for obedience? Again, it's not to be saved, we can't get saved by anything less than perfection, so our obedience could never yield

God's righteousness. It can't be out of fear that we're going to lose our salvation, because God's faithful in what

He starts, He finishes, and we're sealed by the Holy Spirit, the promise to the day of redemption.

The Bible teaches when you believe in the Lord, you're saved eternally, this is eternal life. So, what's our motivation?

There are many motivations, and here's one, if you got my email this week, it's that God is your

Father. It's not in the text here, but this is just a reminder, so when I talk about obedience, you remember the motivation for obedience.

God is your Father. Romans 8, you do not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry out,

Abba, Father. Why do we want to obey God? Just like if we have a great dad on earth, and I'm sorry if you didn't, but you have a great

God in heaven, you want to honor Him, and you want to obey Him, and you want to make Him look good, because you know what

He's giving you is for your own good. Everywhere you look,

God is Father, God is Father, God is Father. Giving thanks always, Ephesians, for everything to God the

Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father.

Our Lord Jesus, when He taught us to pray, said, our what? Father. If you get Father, you get

Christianity. J. Packer said in his book, Knowing God, if you want to judge how well a person understands

Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being

God's child, and having God as his Father. You're adopted.

You're adopted, Christian. Packer said, I summarize

New Testament religion as the knowledge of God as one's Father, through Christ Jesus. He called this the secret of the

Christian life, and of a God -honoring life. In other words, don't forget it, and you want to honor the

Lord, think of Him as Father, the Great Father, the Heavenly Father. And Packer said, knowing that, the truths of God the

Father. You should say these six things to yourself over and over and over. He said, say them in the morning when you wake up, say them at night when you go to sleep, when you wait on the bus, when your time and your mind is free.

He said, these are the six things that should go through your mind that will motivate you to obey.

I am a child of God. God is my Father. Heaven is my home.

Every day is one day nearer. My Savior is my brother, and every

Christian is my brother, too. Isn't that good? That should motivate you to serve.

Last question for today, and it'll be a quick one. Number five, does God discipline disobedience?

Does God discipline disobedience? And the answer is, well, of course, we just saw it.

Zechariah didn't believe Gabriel, he didn't believe God, and it says in Luke chapter 1 verse 20, and behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.

Does God discipline His children when they disobey? Yes. And you're not a good father if you don't.

And He's a heavenly Father, and He does. I'd like to finish the sermon by reading from Hebrews 12, so please go forward to Hebrews 12, as I answer this question, does

God discipline disobedience? The answer is yes. And next time we're going to talk about, does

God reward obedience? But for today, is

God faithful? What's the response to God's faithfulness? Is obedience important? What is the

Christian's motivation for obedience? Number five, does God discipline disobedience? Yes.

But I don't use the word punish, because Jesus has been punished in our place.

I don't use the word wrath, because the wrath has been satisfied by Jesus. Fathers, mothers, don't punish your children, chasten them.

Hebrews 12, does God discipline disobedience? Of course, because He wants us to be conformed to the image of the

Son. Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside also every weight and sin which clings so closely.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him.

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens every son whom

He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you're left without discipline, which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children, and not sons.

Besides this, we had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. They're limited in their wisdom. But He, God, disciplines us for our good, that we may share

His holiness. He's crafting, He's working, He's cutting off loose edges, rough edges, sharp edges.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Does God discipline disobedience? Yes, He does. He does.

For our good, and for His glory. When I step back and I look at this passage,

I say, it's remarkable. Because it's not just a bunch of data that I look at and say, this word means this, and this word means that.

These things were written for us, so that we might learn, and we might grow. God is faithful, and our response is joy.

Our response is we want to obey. Our response is we obey out of gratitude. And our response is,

Lord, thank you for disciplining us. Because it means you love us. Let's pray. Father, we give you all the glory.

You are our Heavenly Father. Not just mine, not just the people's, but our. And collectively we say, great is your faithfulness.

Would you help us to be full of joy as a response to your faithfulness? Would you help us to obey?

Would you help us to obey the commandments, rightly, with the motivation of freedom, and love, and a response to your grace?

Father, I thank you that you discipline us. And even though at the time it doesn't seem good, but it's for our glory, and for our good, rather, and your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.