Watching by Faith (12/24/2000)

Watching by Faith in the First Advent and the Second Coming

I don't want to sing the special now. Am I okay here? I know we're gonna have a lot of music in the afternoon service, so Let's go to Luke chapter 1 This morning and I want us to look starting with about verse 34 and It's a two-part message we'll do one part today and then I'm gonna Do the other part next week the Lord willing and didn't make up for saying the bad word there, but I did add the Lord willing.

We're not supposed to use The word that looks like this Is what we learned at Sunday school for a week we're gonna try not to use That word and I already messed up. So do I get to start over new? It's our okay good.

Well, I can just go ahead and use it because I'm out I'm out. What would you say? Oh, no, I would have been out anyway, well, that's not fair because this sermon was already done before Sunday school so I'll try on the fact next next week's is too but We're gonna speak on the topic of watching by faith watching by faith and It's really all one message.

There's just not time for it all in one service. So today we're gonna talk about The first advent and the things that were being watched far for especially by people like Mary and Anna and Simeon. And then next time we're going to talk about the second advent and make some real application for the truths We learned this morning next week.

We'll make application to our own lives in our time of these same truths. So it's difficult because I wish I could do the whole thing at once. But there's no way that we would have time. With the election that we've just been through and some of you've commented to me that it's like the spiritual warfare became visible almost I would agree with that with Our new president elect saying that there are ominous signs on the horizon for our economy.

With the turmoil in the Middle East sometimes it's gone on for so many years now. We just don't pay much attention to it anymore. But I can remember back in the 70s I paid very close attention to it and it's worse right now than it was then it's just that I'm used to it.

How about you? So That is a continuing thing that really needs to be watched. It's very important in the The scenario that God is bringing together in the last days. What about the calling of? Good evil and the calling of evil good in this world and in our society.

What about the slaughter of? Thousands and thousands and thousands thousands in the millions of innocent unborn children. What about the move towards gun control in this country little things like that?

Are they important? Do they have anything to do with prophecy? What about the international currency in the euro dollar? Some of you may not have read this because it's fairly new information. But I read in National Review magazine recently that there is now a European Rapid deployment force of over 200 ,000 soldiers that is not a part of NATO, which means we are not involved with it.

It's Germany France in particular I'm sure England is involved which they wouldn't have been had they still been under Margaret Thatcher. But they probably are involved and so this is a rapid deployment force that can deploy itself without the United States.

Being even a part of it. I also read this week in National Review magazine that if you count all of the dimpled chads. And you count all of the votes that were thrown out because some of the people really were too stupid to know how to vote.

But they did want to vote for mr. Gore. That 53 of the country would have in fact voted for him. Fact did try to vote for him now. The fact is that that percentage is not going to change. Probably it's probably if it does it will probably increase where.

More than 50 of the population of this country will be voting for people who are for slaughtering unborn children. They'll be voting for people who are for the one world government. They'll be voting for people who are against prayer in the schools and.

That's more than the majority if you hadn't figured that out and we're going to see more and more of that. In fact, you may have just witnessed The last Conservative president in your lifetime if the statistics are true, and I believe they are true.

Now you need to all realize that in fact mr. Gore Was elected by the people of this country? But mr. Bush was elected by a sovereign God. Who made things work out in such a way that all the votes were not legal?

But they the mind of those people I am convinced that mr. Gore is right when he says they really voted for me. They just didn't know how to punch the right hole. Wonder why the confusion happened. You ever read any stories in the Bible where the enemies of God?

Turn and kill themselves. I love that story where it says and the army woke up the next day and they were all dead corpses. It's true. God brought confusion and they turned on themselves and slaughtered one another and God's army didn't even have to touch him.

That's what happened in this election. But Bush didn't really win if you look at the mind of the people of the nation you're living in. So we'd better look at that because four years from now you're going to see that you're gonna see that mind express itself so we've been given four years perhaps of Time to work for our Lord.

We don't know how many years or moments We may not have until the sermons over to work for him but we need to be very watchful of The things that are happening now, that's some of the things that we'll get more into next message the Lord willing but today I want us to go into Luke chapter 1 and Start with verse 34 and look at some of the things that were happening around the time of Jesus's first advent.

Next week, we'll talk about the second coming of the Lord. Luke chapter 1 verse 34. Then said Mary unto the angel. How shall this be seeing? I know not a man. Now I want you to place yourselves in this story or else you'll just read over it because you've read it so many times.

But be Mary in this incident. Be Mary and think about as a human being you've just been told that you are going to carry the Son of God in your womb and You're not married and you're a pure woman. You don't believe in fornication and adultery and all the things that we discussed in Sunday school.

That's not part of your lifestyle. But you've been told that you're going to be with child and you're not married yet. Imagine how she must have felt and she says how shall this be? She's probably wanting to say I'm not sure I want this to look like it's going to look To these people I Mean she lived in the most legalistic society that there's ever been on the face of the world the most critical Judgmental legalistic group of people that was her people and now she's going to be with child and apparently without a Husband, how is that gonna look?

And she knows exactly how it's going to look and she says to the Lord questions him and says how can this be? I know not a man. I've never been with a man. Verse 35. And the angel answered and said to her the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and The power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God and Behold the husband the cousin Elizabeth.

Thy cousin Elizabeth. She hath also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her. Who was called barren? For with God nothing shall be impossible. I think this might have been one of the things is accomplished.

Of course, John the Baptist is going to be the forerunner. But also Mary saw that this woman who had been barren was with child, which is in fact a miracle and It is in a sense a sign unto Mary so that she might be comforted.

To know that what the Lord is telling her is in fact going to take place for With God nothing shall be impossible. This is the message that she received and Mary said behold the handmaid of the Lord Be it unto me according to thy words see the humility there her life and purpose in life was to be the handmaid of the Lord and that should be our purpose.

And the angel departed from her and Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth and it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the Salutation of Mary the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost and she spake out with a loud voice and said blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb and Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for lo as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

And Verse 45 is the main verse in the passage for this morning and for next week and it says this. And Blessed is she that believed. Who did she believe? God blessed is she that believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

I Want to look at that verse and just talk about it this morning because that's all we'll have time to do but there's a lot in that verse for us and We'll need to apply it next week as we look at the things that the Lord has told us if we take the written Finished Word of God this Canon and we read everything it tells us about the future.

God has told us far more than he told Mary about the future and We have more things that we can choose to believe God when he said them or not to believe him. Then she had. But she chose to believe that what God said was true.

And that's what faith is to believing that what God says is true and right and will come to pass. So what a marvelous example of faith this woman is. Well, first of all, let's look at the promise of performance Luke chapter 1 verse 45 and blessed is she that believed.

For there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. First of all, she believed. This is an interesting word in the Greek and it's far more Descriptive word than the English word believe is especially our usage of the word nowadays.

It comes from a root word pitho, which means to be convinced or to rely upon with inward certainty and Then there is another word that comes from that word called peace deists which means persuasion or Conviction or reliance upon and then the actual word that is used in this verse for the word believed came which came from those Two little words is the word peace duo and it means this and I want you to get this because it's maybe a little different Idea than what you thought of before but peace duo means to entrust One's spiritual well-being To God I Mean, that's what it means in this sense.

To try it doesn't mean Just to trust God now if you go to the root words. It means that the root word pitho means to be convinced by God now. Listen, it's not that you just all of a sudden work yourself up where you can believe something.

But you are convinced by the evidence that God places in your heart by faith. And when I say evidence, he does use historical evidence. He will use Circumstantial evidence around you but he'll also use the evidence of faith and allow you to see things with your eyes your spiritual eyes.

I mean not your I eyes, but your spiritual eyes. I said it twice right there in one sentence I'm out the game. I'm out of the contest. It was EYE though that time. To be totally convinced so that you then can rely upon The one that you believe that is the root meaning it means to be persuaded that what the one you believe is telling you is True so that therefore you rely upon him.

But as you take those root meanings into the actual word that we find in this verse, which is peace Duo, it doesn't just mean to Believe in God what it are to trust God what it means is to entrust yourself into his hands.

I Wish I could find a better example than this because this is so worn out and you've all heard Probably ten different preachers give this example, but I'm gonna use it because it's so good. But do you remember the man who was the tightrope artist and he put that he strung it across Niagara Falls.

He goes out across it with you know that all he has is the bar and he goes out and makes it down there and back and The crowd just goes crazy and then he goes over and he gets a wheelbarrow. He puts the bar down that's supposed to give him the balance and he just takes the wheelbarrow and he puts that wheel on that little wire and he pushes that thing across and back and he makes it safely in the Crowd just goes crazy and he looks at the crowd and he says now how many of you believe?

That I can put you in the wheelbarrow and do it again. And a couple of guys raised their hand he said get in the wheelbarrow and they wouldn't do it. Why. Well, they trusted the man, but they didn't trust themselves with the man.

Do you see the difference? Mary trusted her entire Integrity her future her life. Everything she had on this earth and everything within her heart and soul all of that She entrusted with this messenger who brought her a message from God this by the way is our messenger.

Because the Bible says in these last days he hath already Spoken to us by his son. Do you trust the message? Do you trust the message enough to entrust yourself? Into the life. I mean, I mean into the arms and hands of the one who wrote the message and sent it to you.

That's what this word peace to you. Oh means so she I think I think we've defined it this way she entrusted. Or you could use the word yielded her life into God's hands being persuaded Convinced and confident that she could rely upon him with all of her inward certainty.

That takes all the different definitional words into that word puts it into one sentence, but that's what she did. Now as we go on back at the verse we see that the result of this is in verse 45. She is blessed.

Blessed is she that believed? This word blessed is Macario's which literally means supremely blessed. She was supremely blessed. It can be translated. She was extremely well-off. She was extremely blessed because of her belief.

The promise of Performance now is where we come next look at verse 45 and blessed is she that believed for there shall be a performance. The promise of performance there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

This word performance is the word teleos, which means completion. But I want to give you w e vines definition of it because it takes it a little bit further into the depth of the word. Vine says that this word for performance, which is translated fulfilled complete different other ways in the New Testament is Not merely to terminate a thing as in to finish a thing.

But to carry out a thing to the full. So teleos means to something that is started Shall be continued and carried out to the full and that's what the word means is when it is finally carried out to the full and so the Bible says that blessed is she that believeth for there shall be a Carrying out to the full of everything that God told her.

We see this same word used in many places. I want to give you a couple examples ones revelation 10 7 where it says. But in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel when he shall begin to sound the mystery of God shall be finished.

The word finished is teleos. It means all the mysteries that God has given to the prophets down through all of time shall come to fruition at this stage in the tribulation period all of the judgments on the world system that were prophesied by every prophet starting all the way back with Adam who was a prophet when?

Genesis 315 was told to him. I Was the prophet in that case all the way through down to every Prophet that ever spoke of this it will be fulfilled at that time. Revelation 15 one says. And I saw another sign in heaven great and marvelous seven angels having the seven last plagues.

For in them is filled up the wrath of God. The phrase filled up is teleos. All of the wrath of God will come to full fruition at this moment in history. Mark 13 -4 uses the word and we will come back to this next week.

In fact, this will be the beginning verse for the message next week. Mark 13 for says tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled? The word fulfilled is teleos the same word so what we're going to do is tie in verse 44 where where Mary was promised that there would be a performance a Fulfillment a carrying out to the full of everything God told her.

The same thing is told to us in Mark 13 for that all of the Things that God says about the second coming the second advent of Jesus Christ to the jot and to the tittle every bit of it will be fulfilled and We will see it come to pass from one vantage point or another.

Now let's go back to Mary now for a moment though and let's look at the mode of the promise performance. The mode is. Look at this and back in verse 45 and blessed is she that believed. For there shall be a performance of those things that were told.

The mode was the words were told. Now What is it that will be performed in her life the things that were told her by God? The phrase were told is in the perfect Passive tense which is important because in the Greek and in the English in the perfect tense.

It means this something that has been completed in the past once and for all never to be repeated. You hear me say that again and again, but we'll get it eventually where everybody can quote it. That's what the perfect tense means.

So the tense itself speaks volumes. This word that was given her was told to her once. It didn't have to be told to her again. This book has been given to us once and God does not have to authenticate it again.

Because he authenticated it with signs and wonders in the lives of the Apostles and the writers who gave us this from the Lord. It was fully authenticated. He does not go back and reauthenticate anything.

That's why you don't see miracles on every page of the Bible. You see miracles in Cycles during times when God is authenticating his message, especially when he changes the message or adds some new revelation.

So with the coming of the New Testament truths, we had miracles all over the place. By Jesus and the Apostles and those who penned the New Testament. But I'll tell you this when the last page of the book of Revelation was finished and written.

He has spoken. It's in the perfect tense. It's done once never to be repeated again. God has spoken and we need to understand that what means and what comes next is the performance of it. Everything that God has said is going to come to pass.

Do we believe that like Mary believed it? Now what is the source of the promise? Well, the source is very obvious because it says in the last part of verse 45 those things which were told her from the Lord.

So the Lord is the source of these words. Now I want to go change ideas for a moment. There are some conditions to this promise performance many times when God gives us a promise in the Bible. There are conditions that go with it.

We can think you have you ever seen the little book what's called prompt Charlotte what's that book called promises prayer promises or God's promises that has. I don't know if it has them all but it's got hundreds of promises out of the Bible.

And that's a wonderful book. We Charlotte likes to give it as a gift. We've done that many times but you have to be a little careful with them because they're not just like a blank check. Sometimes sometimes God says if you do this.

Then I will do this and it is a promise, but it's based on the if and that's called a conditional promise. What is the one say in John 15 where it says If you abide in me and I in you. Then you can ask what you will and it shall be done now.

Is that a promise that says you can ask for anything you want life and God just make it happen. He's a genie in a bottle and he's I need this I need that or is there a condition to the promise. The promise says if you abide in me.

That means live in me dwell in me and my words abide in you. Then you may ask what you will and it shall be done. What does it mean to have his word abiding and you're in it every day? You're in his word and he's abiding you so there are conditions now I want to talk for a few moments about some of the conditions that we see in Mary's life that made this promise.

That there would be a performance be possible look first at. Well, we will review a little bit verse 45. The whole idea is she had faith. So we've already kind of covered that She had faith and it says blessed is she that believeth.

But look at verse 46 it gives us another Attribute in her life. Mary said by soul doth magnify the Lord. Now look at the next verse it gives another one. Verse 47 and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

Now there's a difference between the soul and the spirit. So here we have a woman who has God-given faith. She has a magnifying soul a soul that magnifies God and she has a rejoicing spirit. These are things that need to be found in the life of the believer if many of God's promises are going to come forth now God is working always as we'll see a little bit later.

To create those things within us and to make them come to maturity within us. But first of all, what is a magnifying soul? Well, Mary said my soul doth magnify the Lord. The word soul here is the word sukey.

Now there are several words for soul in the New Testament and we have to be a little careful with which word we're talking about. Because they can mean slightly different ideas. But this word sukey is not the word Zoe which is sometimes translated into the word soul which simply means life.

So sometimes where you see soul in the English It just means that you're alive you have been given the breath of life would be a good thing to say. But that this word is not that word. Nor is this the word pneuma which is normally translated spirit.

This is the word sukey which is nearly always translated soul and what it means is the sentient. Principle only now, let me give you the definition for a sentient. Sentient means feeling or a sensation as distinguished from perception or thought.

Now think about that a minute feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought. When we understand the definition of the word soul we talk about our soul. What we understand is that the words.

Our soul is that which makes us able To connect with a physical world. We are in fact a spiritual being. But we live in a physical world and we live in a physical body a tent a tabernacle if you will and the thing that is the interface between the spiritual you and The physical body that is your servant that you live in that takes you from place to place to serve.

God is your soul. If you didn't have a soul the spirit could not connect with the body. I assume and So the soul is not what we sometimes think it is. Sometimes we talk about our soul. We really mean we're also encompassing the spirit and that's okay to use those terms because even in the Bible sometimes it uses the terms As synonyms, but when you get down to the specific meanings and specific verses that differentiate the two such as where it says that the word Of God is a two-edged sword that can split the spirit from the soul.

We see they are two different things. The soul is that part of you which relates to the outer world? It has feelings it can sense the things that are around you and so forth, but it is not your spirit.

So your soul can lean towards the flesh or it can lean towards spiritual self. It's just the go-between in between the two so for a person to be like we talked in Sunday school this morning brother Otis said he talked about the body and how it Should be a servant of the new man Who is a certain servant and in unity with the Holy Spirit of God?

So that if the new man is as one with the Holy Spirit. Then the new man should control this body and it becomes Merely a vehicle to take you to the place where God wants you to be to do God's work and that's what the body's meant to be.

The body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body the Bible said in the Sunday school lesson happens to be in the sermon this morning as so often happens. I wish the sermon could come first in the Sunday school lesson second and then we'd do it the other way around.

But I think it's great. But you think about all that now she she's talking about her soul right now. She is saying that her soul magnifies the Lord now. Let me look at the word magnify and then I'll come back to talk about the soul again.

The word magnify is Megaluno, which means to make great or to show great or to declare something to be great. To cause to be held in greater esteem or respect to intensify. Now think about this. Can you make God bigger than he is?

You really can't but let me ask you this in this world in the sight of other men. Could you magnify the Lord? Could you make him bigger in their mind than he had been the day before by something you say or by your own?

Walk with the Lord we better be able to and In fact we can and in fact that is exactly what Mary was doing and she did it with her soul now. Isn't that interesting because the soul is that part of you which can?

Relate to a physical world and bring the spiritual you into Action and doing things in the physical world through works of the body. So if we're going to magnify God in a physical world with predominantly carnal people and We want them to be thinking about God whereas yesterday.

They didn't have a thought of him. Then then our soul must be such that it magnifies God. It has to be in the under the control of our spirit. Who is one with the Lord and then it controls the body. So it is in fact a spirit control soul control body.

I Heard that in a sermon once and then it's true. It's a good analogy. And so now here's what Mary had. She was a person who had a magnifying soul. Now look at the second thing she says in verse 47 and My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

Now, we're going to another level we're talking about her spirit. Which is the word pneuma, which is always translated the word spirit. And it means the rational soul now use the word soul there just to mean being the rational being fight the vital principle the mental disposition so we see the difference here, whereas the the soul is The feelings and the sensation the spirit brings forth the perception the thought.

The ability to have some of the qualities that God had because we were made in his image and All of those things it is that part of her which rejoiced in God in my Savior that's why it's so important that that spirit be fed that spiritual man be fed the Word of God and That there be a relationship between us and the Lord and through prayer and so forth so that we have a rejoicing Spirit.

The word rejoiced is a beautiful word here. It's Agalya Agalya. Oh, which means literally to jump for joy. That's what the word means. To jump for joy. So we see that Mary was a woman of faith. She was a person whose soul magnified the Lord in this physical world Among other men and she was a person whose spirit was jumping for joy.

Now there's another thing about her that we see here though and that is this look at verse 48. For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. She was a an humble person she Through perhaps circumstances in her life.

I don't know how the Lord worked this into her life, but I know it came from him because none of us in the flesh Are humble. So neither was Mary but God worked this into her life and She had humility and there are proofs of it and I want to give those to you before we stop this morning because all of these things are Characteristics we need to have in our lives as the second advent approaches.

We need to have these same characteristics that Mary had if we're going to see God doing the things around us and If we're going to hear his voice in the word as he has already revealed what's going to happen sometimes we're not enlightened to it as he begins to speak to our hearts more and more and Enlightens the truths of the second coming and the rapture and all those things as we study the word and we become More aware of what God is speaking to us.

Then we need to know there will be a performance of these things. But we have to be in this place to be this type of servant who receives these things before we get the promise of the performance and So look at this humility that she has.

First of all in verse 48 it is because of the presence of God in her life. I mean this is shown by the fact that she is carrying the Lord Jesus Christ in her womb. But it is is it not true that we carry the Lord Jesus Christ within ourselves as well.

He is in us as he was in her. And so she becomes a beautiful type of the fact that she is blessed because of God's presence. She said blessed above all women will I be because Jesus is in me? Well, if that's true, it's true of us.

We are first of all our humility shows. Because we have God's presence in our life and we begin to understand that we would not be blessed in and of ourselves. That the blessedness does not come from our power and our personality and our beauty and our abilities and all the things we can do the blessedness comes from the fact that he is in us and The second thing that that perhaps has brought humility in Mary's life is what I would call pressure first.

We have the presence of God now. We have the pressure of God. Look at verse 49. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things. Do you realize that If you're saved today. That the Lord is molding you with his hands and shaping you Into from clay into the vessel that he wants you to be and that you will be.

He was doing this in her life. And she says the Lord has done things to me. He has done great things to me and holy is his name. And do you know that the Lord is doing that in each one of you if you belong to him today?

In fact, we see this given in Scripture In different ways. We see it discussed as if God the Father is involved in this. From the heavenlies we see it discussed as if the Son of God is involved up in it both when he was here.

But also now from the heavenlies and we see it spoken of in the Bible through the Holy Spirit in his ministry on this earth. In our lives today. It says in 1st Thessalonians 5 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you.

Holy. That's the Father we see in Hebrews 13 12. Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. That's the Son of God. And we see in 2nd Thessalonians 2 13.

But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brother and beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit that's the father going through the channel of his spirit into this world into this physical in time dimension where we're living and sanctifying us.

So it is God himself who makes us change from day to day to be more what he wants us to be and he had Done a work in Mary's life by this time. She says Mighty is he who has done great things to me. He's doing great things to you.

Sometimes we don't know it because our own children we live with them every day. We don't see him growing but you know when you have a Relative who lives at a distance and maybe only comes in three times a year or friends from past life that come to see you.

And what do they always say when they see your joy my my how they've grown. And you're saying can you have been like this the last month? You know, they haven't changed that much. I haven't seen the change.

Well, you know what that's true of you spiritually. You don't see the change, but we do. We see the change in each other, especially if we've been together for a long long time some of us we've seen the change in each other through the years.

Haven't we and. And Ephesians 1 19 says and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were he's doing mighty things in our life. Ephesians 3 7 says wherefore I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given it to me by the effectual working of his power.

He's doing great things in our lives. Ephesians 3 20 says now to him that is able to do Exceedingly abundantly above all that we would ask and think according to the power that worketh in us. He's working in our lives.

He's doing great things. Just like he did with Mary. Philippians 2 13 says for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. In Philippians 3 21 it says who shall change our vile body.