Fighting for Christmas Joy, p.2

We come this morning to the second installment of Fighting for Christmas Joy.

And as I said last week, we're not fighting for something that we're trying to obtain. It's ours. It's given to us.

But you do have to fight to suppress the counterfeit and to reap and embrace and walk in the fullness of true joy. And one of the key components of that is what we're looking at this morning as we continue in this early narrative of the birth of Christ from Luke's Gospel. Go there if you would, Luke chapter 1.

And let's overview where we're going here. This is Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. And miraculously his wife, the aged and barren Elizabeth, has conceived the child. And the child is John, John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus the Savior.

And about the same time, the angel tells Mary, Elizabeth's cousin, Mary, you're going to conceive a child. And in so many words, he's much greater than John that Elizabeth has miraculously conceived. Your child is literally of the Holy Spirit. He's the Son of God.

He is the Most High. And so you're going to have a child too. And then the narrative flows forward and first we have John's birth. And John's father Zacharias, as you remember from the Gospel narrative, was stricken with muteness. He couldn't speak for the whole time Elizabeth is carrying John because he doubted the angel. When the angel came to him and said, Zacharias, your son, are you going to rather have a son through Elizabeth?

Because he said, wait, she's too old and wait, she couldn't have a child when she was young. And so Zacharias questioned the angel, is this really going to happen? And the angel says, because you doubted, you're going to be mute until the child is born. But now the child is born and that's the passage we have before us. And powerful, rich doctrinal truths concerning Christ, not only his birth but all that he would be. And by the way, that's what we see throughout Scripture, the incarnation is never separated from the crucifixion.

It's one whole. But here we have Zacharias holding John the Baptist and he begins to say some things, much of it prophetic. And it's interesting that though he's holding this precious, miraculous son, everything he talks about is pointing to Mary's boy, Mary's baby, Jesus the son of God. All right, Luke chapter 1 beginning in 67. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited us and past tense accomplished redemption for his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath which he swore to Abraham our father to grant that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life we're in verse 76 now he does talk about John here but in the sense of John being the forerunner of Jesus verse 76 and you child who would be called the prophet of the most high for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways to give to the people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace and the child that's John the baptist continued to grow and to become strong in spirit and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel now obviously we know as Christians that Christmas joy is not just warm feelings family and friends now thank God for that but that's not the essence of Christmas joy Christmas joy the kind we must fight for is based on sound biblical doctrine many many ways we could illustrate this but Isaiah the prophet prophesied of Christ's coming and he says in Isaiah 9 6 that for unto us a child is born now if you stop right there you can make that mean anything you want and that's what the liberal pastors and theologians and worldlings in general have done Christmas means a child is born and that just speaks of a new beginning for mankind a new age of equity and inclusiveness a new love and they go on and on and on now it does include those things but that's not the basis of Jesus' birth that's not the basic understanding of who he really is because the prophet didn't stop and when he said unto us a child is born he continued he said unto us a son is given now it starts narrowing down more the child wasn't just born for God's people he was a son given then you continue on in the text and in the balance of biblical truth we know it's God's son given over for our sins to be our savior and to be our lord so what I'm saying to you is the more you understand sound biblical doctrine the more rich is your Christmas joy so let's take Zechariah's prophecies here and unpack some rich doctrinal truths about our lord his birth and why he came all right number one roman number one we ought to praise the lord and stir up that Christmas joy for a procured redemption a procured redemption now I picked that word procured especially particularly because of all that it emphasizes for right now though the word procure simply means to obtain and the word the translators use in my translation to accomplish all right now sub point a this salvation this rather redemption was procured by God himself look at verse 68 by God himself he says in verse 68 blessed be the lord god of Israel for he has visited and he has accomplished redemption for his people so this isn't something that's accomplished by third party it's God himself who voluntarily in great love for us took on himself the responsibility to seal to secure our redemption now the word redemption is a common word out of the street language of the day it was it was a culture in which probably upwards to 50% of the citizens lived in some form of slavery now a lot of the slavery would be quite parallel to what we would call being an employee today but there were others who were not slaves at that nature they were more what we'd call bond slaves with no rights matter of fact some slaves old property they got salaries they had certain rights it was a complex system but they did have slaves and it was also common in this way in this day for a friend usually a family member to raise the money to pay for that slave to be released it was a ransom payment if you will and that slave then would be released from the bonds of the slave market and become a free person in society so Paul and the New Testament writers here Luke bring that concept out of the secular world and give it a wonderful spiritual truth that is that God has paid the ransom for us himself and God has accomplished for us our ransom payment our redemption I don't know about you but if you're a sinner maybe you're not a sinner like I am of course I don't mean that we're all sinners the problem with some of you is you gotta have such a low view of God therefore you do not have a great enough view of your sin and you understand what a glory and what a joy it is when you know who God is and how deep your sin is to have a God who came to be the ransom the redeemer literally he bought you out of the slave market of sin sin and Satan no longer own you or control you you now have been redeemed and belong to another so he works it this way in verse 68 again he accomplished redemption for his people that speaks of the effectual nature of our redemption in other words God didn't just hit a lick at trying to redeem us he accomplished our redemption a beautiful picture and a powerful picture the word accomplished here means to make or to do it's in the aorist tense and the aorist tense in the old language meant a finished action in past time with continuing results or consequences so he says God has come he finished the work through his son Jesus Christ i.e on the cross for us the work is finished redemption is accomplished and now we remain his ransomed redeemed ones finished work with continuing consequences now what he does is more therefore than just provide for our redemption or you could say provide for our salvation he hasn't just provided for it he has accomplished it in God's eternal mind you see God's above time and space and this is one of those passages that once again force us to view it from God's sovereign eternal perspective there is a man's perspective where of course we must repent and believe that's true we will always preach that but we will not neglect the fact that the Bible wants us to look very often from God's perspective of how God did all of it totally apart from us that that's something that ought to stir some Christmas joy now here we have Zacharias and he's prophesying now Zacharias is a Jew he's a leader among the Jews Zacharias is a man versed in the old testament scriptures and so when Jesus comes and the truth about Jesus begins to unfold these old ancient Jews even if they're believers like Zacharias it's just slowly unfolding to them all that this means because they always thought in view of God's elect chosen people are the nation of Israel and that's not wrong but there's a higher fulfillment of God's chosen people there's a higher fulfillment of God's elect people and that is the church those who believe on Christ in this new dispensation and become God's people so you have two things going on here while Zacharias is prophesying there's an application to Israel nationally speaking but the highest in full application is to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ those whom he will save and keep forever and ever not just a nation but people out of all people's tongues tribes and nations will be become a part of this what you might call the new true Israel of God the true new people of God all right so this is primarily speaking not of Israel nationally though it does include that it's primarily speaking of a spiritual redemption wrought through the son of God Jesus Christ that's interesting in verse 68 again the word visited in the new american standard for he has visited us now you could have just said he has accomplished but the word visited according to at robertson the imminent a great scholar among baptists the word visited is a is a pregnant word it has a lot of dimensions to it and it has the idea that um of examining of inspecting something and also in the ancient jewish mind when you would say we had a visitation from God that almost always meant God's coming in judgment you didn't want to hear somebody say God is visiting us oh my goodness everything judgment is coming but a new dispensation is dawning a new age of grace is coming and now God comes to visit not in judgment but in grace and in mercy and love and in forgiveness of sins but as at Robertson points out God is has examined so he visited us he comes to examine our expect in other in other words God has come and he's thoroughly examined our case God has come in his inspection and he's thoroughly examined our condition he knows the facts he with his omnipresent eye and his omniscient mind has studied our case and has concluded what is the proper course of action because Jesus came to save the children and having with his omnipresent eye in his omniscient mind studied the case God and God alone knows exactly the course of action needed that we might have this redemption that's what the text is telling us so he chooses therefore to do the right thing according to God's definition of the right thing to bring about our redemption i.e to accomplish that's the word here to accomplish our redemption so it does not mean God came to seek to help us toward redemption it does not mean that God came to seek to offer a possibility at redemption it does not mean that God just provided quote a way for redemption verse 68 says he accomplished redemption it's done it's paid it's finished you see on our own we are too weak we are way too helpless to achieve this on our own so this points to the doctrine of what theologians call particular redemption and effectual effectual means it accomplished what it set out to perform jesus god sent the son jesus christ and god the father and god the son determined that we were going to accomplish for the children what they can't accomplish for themselves and i've got news for you what god sets out to accomplish gets accomplished i.e he procures obtains it on our behalf you see jesus when he came literally and actually accomplished redemption he literally and actually paid the ransom for us when he died on the cross he did not die just to give us a chance at redemption but when he died my redemption was literally actually finished and accomplished now in this day again when one used this common greek street language word of the day leitrosis it meant to ransom someone out of the slave market it was the act of a third party purchasing or paying the price to release another from the bondage of slavery and when they paid that payment that person was released it was finished and by the way a lot of those slaves that's all they had ever known and when somebody purchased their redemption they paid their ransom a lot of times they didn't act like a free person for a long time they had to learn to enter into the joy of their redemption and that's what i try to do each week is preach into you more truth so you can enjoy more in your redemption you know why you leak you get kind of filled up under the word of god maybe had a good quiet time maybe this or that foundationally so sitting under the preaching of the word of god then you go out there and you turn on the television you open up the computer you go out in the world and you start finding joy in other things and god sits in heaven and says you fool child you have the most glorious wondrous pleasures afforded to anybody if you would just enter into them if you just embrace them if you would just fight for them and that's what we're doing we're we're in a fight for joy not that we can lose it but to enjoy it because it most glorifies god when we're most joyous in god when we're most satisfied in our lord now he does all of this for his own people the text tells us look at verse 68 um no matter of fact that's being our outline it's not only accomplished by god himself that is our redemption it's for his own people there is a particular application now some of those who are more the armenian bent and want to make salvation be the product of god does his part now you got to do your part they don't like this and i understand that but i still love them but there is a particular element to redemption verse 68 again blessed be the lord god of israel for he has visited us and accomplished redemption didn't end there for his people he said there are some who are his and there's some who are not his and even if you are the most man-centered in your theology and you believe over here the weight of it depends on you doing these things in order to get saved i've told you a thousand one times sure you have to repent and believe on christ but when you've done that in back to that you find god was working anyway but no matter what you believe you believe in a limited atonement a limited redemption because all of those who do not repent and believe will not receive the effects of christ's death it's limited to those who believe that's the manward perspective the godward perspective is it's limited to those who are his elect or chosen his people both are true i just don't understand why we can't just preach the whole council of god and preach what looks contradictory but it's not contradictory god's just wiser than we are so this was a particular people now remember who is prophesying what is the context it's israel it's the nation of israel nobody nobody in ancient israel would tell you that they are not the chosen called elect people of god even those who disagree with our theology would say now we hold that israel's god chose abraham it didn't chose joe or charlie or or billy or anybody else from any other nation he chose abraham and out of abraham to have a great nation and abraham and his great nation were god's chosen people everybody believes israel's god's chosen people who's a christian and then god brings it over into the era of grace and to the shock of the jews god still has his chosen ones but now he's choosing them out of jews and gentiles all peoples tongues tribes and nations will be included in the final host of heaven who glorified the father but from a jewish perspective they're learning if you will that all of this points to jesus matter of fact if you start in genesis 13 the very first book of the old testament the bible says in genesis 13 14 through 16 the lord said to abraham after a lot is separated from him now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward eastward and westward for all the land which you see i will give it to you and to your descendants forever and i will make your descendants like the dust of the earth so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth then your descendants can also be numbered there's the nation of israel and god's prophesying through abraham it's going to comfort you and it's going to be great your descendants will have this land and that's the very land we call israel today but wait wait for generations at a time abraham's descendants i.e israel did not possess that land and for generations abraham's descendants were led away away from that land into captivity in egypt or in babylon or syria so as luke writes this narrative we even know that rome possesses the land israel is captive in their own land so when god promised to israel that he would accomplish redemption this including included rather redeeming the land back to israel by the way they're in it today but it was not a universal redemption all people didn't come back to their land israel particularly israel was redeemed and brought back to their land this concept of a particular redemption is thoroughly biblical jews knew nothing else but that it was a redemption of coming back to the land god promised us a particular piece of land for a particular people but then again the promises through abraham have a higher fulfillment than just israel and just literal geographical physical land it was a work of god to bring about the spiritual redemption and the spiritual restoration and and bringing together of god's true people from all people's tongues tribes and nations now i use the word procured he's procured redemption you want to praise him for procuring this redemption because the word procure has has the idea to obtain or to secure now listen by special means special effort or special care i think it's quite special that when god wanted to redeem us he spent he sent rather the special one he sent his own son there wasn't just any redemption special care went into this god sent his own son so if you're going to fight for christmas christmas joy let's praise him this season for the procurement of our redemption he sealed it he did it he accomplished it nothing you can add to it now roman too this christmas season we ought to praise him for a powerful redemption and we get this straight out of our text he wants to emphasize now the power of this uh redemption by saying in verse 69 zacharias is prophesying holding john the baptist but he's talking about jesus because john came to honor jesus and zacharias is honoring jesus verse 69 he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of david his servant the horn of salvation has maybe four ideas behind it it was a common phrase in the in the old world first of all it speaks of dignity when a dominant buck deer raises his head and he's got antlers great antlers on his head speaks of his dignity it also speaks of a call to battle it was common throughout the ages in the ancient world that they would have those battle horns and a man would be designated when he blows that battle horn then the troops would release into battle so it's about dignity it's about a call to battle but also it's an emblem of strength when the dominant male buck during the rut part of the year and by the way it's it's starting around here right now that's why you're going to see more deer crossing the roads committing suicide running into cars 18 wheelers but during that time of the year that buck will run out into open places he normally would never show his face and he'll raise his head tall to say i am the top dog top deer excuse me i'm the king i'm the powerful one it's also an emblem of victory in the ancient world they would bring this concept that they saw in the the realm of nature into to their application and alexander the great for example the great victorious king of greece would put horns on the coins he developed for use in his economy because why because i'm the great victor those horns express victory and the bible says in lamentations too that david cut off all the horns of the wicked in other words he reduced them to nothing so zechariah is saying a great horn of salvation the great strength and dignity and power of true salvation has now come upon us and his name is jesus he says it's going to come of the house of david his servant you know king david in the old testament gave a temporal redemption to israel by his military might we see that in first samuel 18 six and seven and it happened as they were coming when david returned from killing the philistine that the women came out of all the cities of israel singing and dancing to meet king saul with their tambourines and with joy and with musical instruments and the women sang as they played and said saul has slayed his thousands and david his tens of thousands david was a great victorious redeemer of ancient israel now one like david has come but greater than david david you see was a type of christ in that he secured israel's physical redemption through his might as a warrior but also zechariah is not talking about just david he's talking about one in the lineage of david jesus christ he will be the true horn of salvation for all of those who repent and believe jesus christ has the righteous dignity for the office of redeemer jesus christ has the righteous courage to enter the arena of battle jesus christ has the righteous strength to defeat our enemies and jesus christ has won the victory over all of our enemies he is the horn of salvation so this christmas as we fight for christmas joy we praise the lord that he has procured our redemption we praise the lord for this power that this is a powerful redemption coming from the strength and power of christ himself but thirdly we praise him that it was a prophesied redemption in other words this didn't just come about this was god's plan all along god's plan from the very beginning was that everything would be centered in jesus christ god's plan that everything that would be done for his eternal working kingdom would be accomplished through the son jesus christ look at verse 70 zechariah is reflecting back and says as he our god spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old he's saying what we're seeing here in jesus coming has been has been told to us over and over throughout the ages so this speaks of jesus jesus is the theme of the old testament he's the theme of the prophets he's the theme of all the prophecies as we begin the bible in the book of genesis adam and eve have sinned in the garden of eden and then a prophetic word goes forth and he says he reflecting forward to jesus the horn of salvation he shall bruise you satan on the head and you shall bruise him on on the hill satan there's coming one he's not here right now there's coming one to the earth he's going to visit and satan he's going to go to the cross so when he dies on the cross he's going to crush your head now you you may be able to bring his physical body to death for a little while but that it won't take long he'll be back alive so the bible begins with the prophecies of christ in his coming and then we go all the way to the last book of the old testament malachi chapter four and the bible says in malachi chapter four verses one and two for behold the day is coming burning like a furnace and all the arrogant and every evildoer shall be chaffed and the day that is coming will set them ablaze says the lord of hosts so that it will leave them neither root nor branch but for you who fear my name here he is here jesus the son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings and will go forth and you'll skip about like calves from the stall in other words you have the great joy when you see all that god's going to do through this coming jesus one of the um shall i call it problems shall i call it challenges of being a pastor in the same place for 42 years is that if you've tried to preach the truth the folks have heard it over and over again and it is true in our fallenness familiarity can breed contempt and you lose the quest to investigate afresh to dig in anew and unearth the joy that's yours again but i charge you you must do that because from genesis all the way through the old testament to the last book malachi and all points in between jesus has been foretold now the three sub-points in this prophecy list i want to bring out this morning first of all notice that um it this horn of salvation is going to bring deliverance from all of our enemies deliverance from all of our enemies look at verse 71 zechariah is prophesying holding john the baptist but talking about jesus and says salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us now that meant something to national israel they always had enemies i tell you what go right in the shoals area and tell everybody i am the chosen elect one of god now that's biblically true but i don't necessarily advise you to do that unless you want enemies but that's what israel told the rest of the world we're gods and you're not so they had enemies egypt babylonians medo-persians iserians the phyllistines and even now their enemies possess them as slaves in their own land rome the romans possess them but we know that the greater film fulfillment is the spiritual fulfillment think about our enemies satan satan the accuser of the brethren but his mouth's been shut by the horn of our salvation jesus christ there is no accusation satan can bring against any child of god that bears any merit before the holy father because jesus sits at god the father satan runs in and says yes but he fails and he sins and he has a bad heart attitude and on and on he's broken your law and jesus looks over at the father and says there's a nail print in that hand and the father says not guilty that boys that lady's redemption has already been accomplished all of our enemies are defeated through the horn of our salvation jesus christ what about sin sin is your enemy sin you see sin robs you of christian and christmas joy sin robs you of the peace god meant for you to have sin robs you for the love and the compassion and the affections for god and the people of god that are the greatest blessings of your life but sin robs us and robs us and robs us but god has defeated that enemy of sin and we're growing in sanctification and ultimately we'll be delivered from the presence of sin completely what about death death is our enemy but jesus has removed the stinger from death death now has become a friend to us death is but a messenger that takes us over to a better land so all of our enemies have been conquered what about the law of god the bible speaks of the law of god as being against us not that the law of god is bad it's just that the children come into this earth with hearts that are law-breaking hearts then as we do our behavior in life we have law-breaking behavior and the law of god condemns us but jesus fulfilled the law and took the punishment for our law breaking on himself so our redemption has been paid it's been accomplished that's christmas joy right there well deliverance from all of our enemies secondly be a determined mercy this prophecy points out that god now hang with me here a minute god determined in godly determination because he has no other kind god-sized determination has set itself to deliver to the children mercy that means to be good to show kindness to give redemption to the most unworthy yeah but i'm not worthy pastor i'm not i don't care what you are quit looking at you look at jesus look at the horn of your salvation god's determined to show us rotten sinners mercy look at verse 72 as ezekarias continually prophesies holding john the baptist but talking about jesus 72 to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant verse 73 continues with the oath that he swore notice he's remembering the covenant he swore this oath he's showing mercy now god's covenant with abraham and his descendants the nation of israel was based on god's determined and infinite mercy but jump down to verse 76 now and you child now he's talking about john but in context of jesus holding john he says now you child will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go on before the lord to prepare his ways but now he talks specifically of john about jesus and he says john your job's going to be now this is just a little baby but john your job's going to be is to prepare for jesus's work because that's the main thing let's continue on let's jump down to verses 76 and 77 oh let's go to 77 to give to his people the knowledge of salvation wait a minute to who his people not the people his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins so the point is as zacharias is holding this baby boy that's his baby boy miraculously conceived of his seed but by miracle because his wife elizabeth was old and barren he's holding that miraculous baby and said your job is to make the way so that people can know and embrace the salvation that comes through jesus and that's the boy that mary's carrying your your your mom's cousins carrying jesus the savior but john you're going to go forth and make the way for him you see john could not save but he could go forth and provide a way for the knowledge of the one who would save and that's what he's saying here now so john's ministry is to inform the people of the provision of salvation that one jesus has come to procure our redemption the great horn of salvation now look at verse 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation last phrase by the forgiveness of their sins and then back down in verse 78 come back to mercy again that's our point a determined mercy because of the tender mercy of our god to which the sunrise from on high will visit us everything brothers and sisters that god does for us through jesus flows out of god's tender mercies god has a capacity to look on us sinners and on the one hand he doesn't lie he doesn't like so many of these people today believe something well i'm a woman i'm a man all this stuff they believe stuff that radically isn't true no god believes the truth about us here's a sinner a law breaker and from the core of their being from their innermost nature to every act they be performed they are unholy and offensive to me there's nothing in them that evokes my sympathy other than i determined to show the most undeserving and unattractive mercy that's christmas joy that little baby is the emblem of god's determined mercy to look at me the chief of sinners and say i declare in the greatness of my character and attributes to love you and cast on you mercy you the most unworthy ones that's christmas joy if that don't give you joy i can't help you go out there and do something silly in the world and find joy that doesn't work and doesn't last the word tender here when he says in verse 78 his tender mercies in the old language that meant the bowels the innermost deep part god goes to the core of who he is and in the innermost core of the true nature of god is a determined mercy toward you good heavens that's good good preaching i say so myself that's good stuff it's just good stuff no matter who says it so in these prophecies we see a deliverance from all of our enemies we see a determined mercy and then thirdly see we see a perpetuity our perpetual discipleship ongoing in other words god makes us his we become his disciples his children you could say and it never ends it just keeps on going you see when god saves you you're going to miss hell but that's not what salvation primarily is primarily salvation is you've gotten off the track of satan being your father in the world being your aim and you've turned to a new track of jesus being your lord and god being your father in a new purpose and pattern of life i.e discipleship and it never ends there may be some ups and downs strong seasons weaker seasons but it never ends it's a perpetual discipleship notice how he says it here in our text look at verse 74 to grant us that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies might serve him that's discipleship without fear well that's that's pretty powerful and see if you go down there let's see um i lost my phrase there it is verse 75 verse 74 we will serve him without fear verse 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all the time he says all the days now how in heaven's name how in heaven's name can you and i born as the enemies of god the bible text will tell us that when you are one sound human being in the womb of your mother the only thing you can invoke in the heart and mind of god is his wrath toward you if he's in chapter two by nature you're the children of wrath how in heaven's name when the very core of my conception and being i had an innermost nature that was so defiled so polluted so unholy that only that the only thing i could evoke out of god is the wrath of god so how am i going to walk in holiness and righteousness i eat true discipleship all of my days verse 79 to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death i don't know about you if the core of your being is rottenness and offensive to god you're in darkness and you sit every moment in the shadow of death but those in that condition last phrase verse 79 but to guide our feet that's discipleship in the way of peace so now being redeemed by my redeemer that little baby that came born of mary that christmas morning he changes me through his gospel and in his eyes based on the merits of his son on my behalf every day weak strong struggling successful failure i'm his disciple and in his eyes i serve him through the merits and the person of his son in holiness and righteousness that's the way god looks at us he said wait a minute i'm not holy and righteous no you're not but jesus is and you're in him as far as god's concerned god the father's concerned and that brings you to peace you know what we do as a staff all the time we try to get people to peace in this understanding of their relationship with god well yeah but i've failed and i've sinned and i really need to repent more than i did i've struggled here and i've strained here and i don't care he has made you righteous and he examined your case on the basis of his omnipresent eye in his omniscient wisdom and he knows the case and he solved the case through the death of his son to be the horn of your salvation and accomplish your redemption quit groveling around and just joy in your redeemer you will not sin less by groveling and beating yourself down about your sin you will sin less by joining the redeemer who keeps you despite your sin that's both are true we're repenters amen but more than that we're respecters of what he's done you know the world can't get none of this they think we're crazy i love the word of god who else could do this but god who could write this stuff only god could do this so all of our days is verse 40 or 75 said so in the provision of his son i.e the horn of our salvation i.e the one who accomplished finished past tense verb accomplished salvation we therefore have holiness and righteousness in god's eyes as our perpetual discipleship condition in christ we stand holy and righteous again in verse 74 be that we might serve him without fear why are you afraid that god's gonna do something bad to you he sent his son to make you his yes he does chastise from now and then but it's always in love it's always so you can get back to joy not get deeper in in misery all of our days some of you even now but what if the covenant god initiated with us through his son's son singular the covenant god has for us through his son removes any and all consequences of what if so zacharias prophesies of a deliverance from all our enemies a determined mercy that's coming through this one jesus and a perpetual discipleship where we can have peace with god knowing that in his eyes through the merits of his son we are holy and righteous before him now let's conclude with verse 76 and you child will be called the prophet of the most high he's talking to john now but about what jesus is going to do well you will go before the lord the ones going to be born of mary to prepare his ways john the baptist zachariah's boy prepared the way jesus is the way there's a family and um sweet loving family the children were aged seven to fifteen but they loved each other you've seen family the kids just loved to play with each other just loved each other i know it's rare but it happens and mom and dad loved them and they just loved being with mom and dad it was just a close-knit joyous loving family and dad came home from the hospital and they said dad what's happened what's happened and dad said i've got a baby boy and you've got a new baby brother and tomorrow i'll be bringing him home to all of us and they just rejoiced and were beside themselves and happy and shouting when jesus died on the cross and accomplished our redemption the bible says he appeared to the disciples but thomas missed the first appearance and the disciples told thomas we've seen the resurrected lord and he said i will not believe it nope not unless i touch the scars well they're meeting in a room and the doors are closed and jesus just appears he's in this glorified state he said now thomas put your finger in these holes in my hand thomas feel this gaping wound in my side and thomas did it and thomas said my lord and my god now now was the main thing that thomas would know he's alive well that's certainly essential and foundational i know but you see other people have come back from the dead lazarus came back from the dead and i love that story in the gospel where there's a funeral procession and jesus just touches the casket and the guy sits straight up he ruined the whole funeral and and god brought him back from this but all the other people who came from back from the dead didn't come back having procured our redemption jesus ascends back up in heaven and all the angels and all the hosts of heaven are praising him and glorious and excited then he gets quiet and one of the hosts of heaven walks forward and said jesus what have you done puts out that nail print hand he puts out that nail print hand and he shows him the wound in his side and he points to the deep gaseous on his head from the crown of thorns i have procured the children's redemption and i'll be bringing all of them home soon that's going to be a glorious day that's christmas joy and that's a joy worth fighting for