“Targeted Grace” – FBC Morning Light (12/25/2024)

Well, a Merry Christmas to you. I hope your Christmas celebration today will be a good one, and I hope it gets off to a good start with meditating on the marvelous grace of God seen at Christmas. Before we look at a passage today, I want to read this reflection on the incarnation from the Puritan Thomas Watson.

He wrote this, he, speaking of Jesus, was poor that he might make us rich. He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God. He took our flesh that he might give us his spirit. He lay in a manger that we might lie in paradise.

He came down from heaven that he might bring us to heaven. That the ancient of days should be born, that he who thunders into heaven should cry in the cradle, he who rules the stars should suck the breast, that a virgin should conceive, that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which himself made, that the branch should bear the vine, that the mother should be younger than the child she bore, and the child in the womb bigger than the mother, that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God.

This was not only amazing, this was miraculous, and indeed it was. Today, for our reflection on Scripture, I want to look at, and probably do so for the next couple of days, I want to look at the Annunciation to Mary in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1.

I know this is very familiar territory to you. You've heard this account many, many, many, many times through the years, I'm sure. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her she's going to have the baby.

But I don't want you to miss something that's very critical to see in this very familiar story. As I meditated on this, and recently preached a message on this particular passage, I was reminded of the last stanza of William Newell's hymn at Calvary, and it begins like this, Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan, oh, the grace that brought it down to man.

I'm going to read this passage, and then the next couple of days reflect upon the grace of God that is profoundly and brilliantly on display in this Annunciation. Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26, it says, Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Highest.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man?

And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her. I want you to see here a brilliant display in this annunciation to Mary of God's grace. First of all, notice that that grace is specifically targeted. Grace is always specifically targeted.

Yes, there is indeed a sense of a reality of common grace, that is, God is gracious to all mankind. One way this is often illustrated is I live out in western Illinois in farm country, and it doesn't matter how a particular farmer may be living, whether or not he even acknowledges the existence of God, he can have an abundant crop just like his neighbor next farm over, who is a believer and is a faithful disciple of Christ.

That's common grace, that God in his common grace sends the rain and the sunshine and the harvest. But there is a specific grace, a targeted grace, that comes from God. This is on display here in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy.

Notice how God graciously initiates the annunciation. There was sent by God the angel Gabriel. This messenger that comes does not come because he's responding to merit on somebody's part, on Mary's part or anybody else's.

He's not even coming to her in a response to prayer. Earlier in chapter 1 we read about the birth of John the Baptist, or the announcing that John the Baptist is going to be born to Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth, who had been praying for a baby.

There is no prayer on Mary's part that she has a baby before she ever gets married. This isn't a response to prayer. God graciously initiates the sending of this angel, and he does so very, very specifically.

Luke is careful to show us how the angel, in God's grace, narrows down the focus of his coming. He begins by saying that he sent him to a city of Galilee. There's first of all the region of Galilee, and in the region of Galilee there's this village of Nazareth, a small village of maybe a couple thousand people.

In this village of Nazareth, he sends the angel to a virgin, that is, an unmarried young girl. Presumably, in this village of Nazareth, there could have been maybe a hundred young girls that weren't married, who were virgins.

He sends them to a virgin, but then among all the virgins, he specifically sends Gabriel to a betrothed virgin. Arranged marriages were common, and so maybe 20 percent of the virgins in Nazareth were betrothed.

He narrows it even further. A virgin who's betrothed to a man of David's household, that is, a descendant of David, narrows it specifically more to a man of David's household named Joseph, and finally, we're specified that the angel comes to this virgin whose name was Mary.

God's grace is specifically targeted, and I want us to realize that today as we reflect upon and meditate upon the Savior who was born to bring salvation to you. How is it that of all the billions of people on the planet during the course of your lifetime, how is it that God's saving grace reached you personally?

How and why? How did it come to you personally, and why did it come to you personally? I think we can say simply because God in his grace sought you out, just as God in his grace sought out a young virgin in Nazareth named Mary.

Let's rejoice today in the grace of God that brought salvation's plan down to man. Our Father and our God, we are grateful today. We're grateful for this wonderful, wonderful message of salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus, and we're grateful for your stupendous, amazing, marvelous, specifically targeted grace.

We praise you for it today on this Christmas day. In the name of Jesus our Savior, amen.