The Mercy Promised to Our Fathers

Coming up today on Redoing Your Mind… In his song, he says that God is fulfilling His promises to show mercy and remember His holy covenant. As it turned out, those promises were fulfilled in part by Zacharias' own son. We will see God's faithfulness as we continue our study from the gospel of Luke. Here's Dr. R.C.

Sproul. This morning we'll continue with our study of the gospel of Luke, and we'll return once more to the song of Zacharias, the Benedictus, which we looked at the first section last Sunday morning. And this morning my intent is to look at the middle section, and then God willing next Sunday morning see the final section of this hymn.

But since even though I'm only going to be commenting on the middle section, I will read the entire hymn once more this morning from Luke 1, beginning at verse 67 and reading through verse 79. Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David. As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the highest, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God with which the day spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. This song again was inspired by God the Holy Spirit and is recorded here in Luke's gospel by His superintendents and by His inspiration. It is for our instruction in righteousness and for our edification.

Please receive it this morning as such. Last Sunday morning I spent almost all of our time considering the significance of the first part of the Benedictus when Zacharias praises God because he had visited His people in this marvelous way, and that visit was a visit of redemption. And he goes on to say, I stopped in the middle of the sentence, which is not all that unusual, but He has visited us and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us.

It would be almost impossible to count all of the titles that are used to describe the Messiah in sacred Scripture, but here's one that we could easily miss as we passed over the text too quickly. But really this visitation and redemption involves the coming of the Messiah who is here referenced as the horn or a horn of salvation in the house of His servant David. Now this image of the horn refers to those beasts of the earth that use their horns in battle, and it is a symbol of great strength. In Jewish imagery, one such animal that comes to the presence again and again is the ox, and we have the expression in our own language of being as strong as an ox. Now I don't know, Mr. Bookman, if this refers to the nigh ox or the other ox, but if you want to know anything about that, our elder Bookman has his Ph.D. in cows, and there aren't too many people that you will ever know with that distinction.

So if you want to know about the strength of the ox, you consult our dear elder. I can't help but notice that in the symbols of the four gospel writers in the early church that one of them is given the symbol of the ox, even the author of the gospel that we're studying this day. But in any case, it is the Messiah who is described as having the horn of salvation, as being one who comes in His messianic office with enormous strength, a strength that cannot be overcome, and He comes in the house of His servant David. Now notice that in this part of the hymn, Zacharias is not celebrating the role that God is giving to His Son who has been named John. That prophetic utterance comes at the end of the hymn. But in this section of the hymn, he is extolling the greatness of God's Messiah whom God is raising up in the house of David.

His own son John would be from the house of Levi and not from the tribe of Judah, in which tribe we have the Messiah from the house of David. And now he mentions that this realization of this visitation of the horn of salvation is not something that has come de nova out of the head of Zeus without any word of preparation, but is merely the fulfillment of the promises that the prophets have given from the very beginning of time. The prophecy of the coming Messiah begins with Adam and Eve and the curse upon the serpent whose seed would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And throughout the pages of the Old Testament, the prophets again and again reiterate that gospel promise of the coming Messiah who will bring redemption with Him, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Now this reference in biblical terminology is not simply a promise that God is going to rescue the Jews from the Romans or from the Philistines or the Amorites or the Jebusites or the Stalagtites or the Stalagmites or any of those other ites that were constantly besieging Israel in Old Testament time.

But the ultimate enemy that will be crushed by the horn of salvation who visits us is the enemy of the prince of darkness and all of his minions and his allies, his ploys that are part of the curse, death, darkness, disease, everything that puts a shadow over the joy of the experience of human life. All of these enemies will be conquered by this Messiah who will rise from the house of David to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. Do you notice this is the same theme that Mary focused on in the Magnificat when she said that God has remembered the promise that He has made to our father Abraham. You know sometimes in theological discussions that I'm involved with, people will often ask the following question to me. They said, do you believe in covenant theology? And covenant theology is often a nickname for Reformed theology or more specifically for Calvinism. And when people ask me, do I embrace covenant theology, I always answer by saying, yes, I do.

But that's not what I want to say. What I'm thinking but biting my tongue and not saying to them, but I'll say to you this morning when people say, do you embrace covenant theology, what I want to say is, of course, what other kind of theology is there for heaven's sake? How can you read the Bible and not see that the basic foundational structure of all of the history of redemption, of all of the unveiling revelation of God Almighty is the structure of covenant? That that's the basis by which we enter into worship with God and into the salvific relationship that we have with Him because He, apart from us and for us, unilaterally made a promise of redemption, which promise cannot fail. So many years ago in this church, I related the story of a personal experience I had in the middle 1960s in Boston when I was a professor at a college there when one of our administrative members became sick unto death and was hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital. And I would visit him several times a week during his dying days. His name was Deacon because he was a deacon at his church, and so everybody called him Deek. And he was such a wonderful, marvelous man and a dear friend to us. And I can remember in those days visiting Deacon, in fact the day before he died, that the only thing I could do for him was to take some ice from beside his bed and put that ice on his parched lips. It was the only physical comfort I could administer to him. By that point, he was not able to speak, but he would look at me with those eyes.

I can still see the look in his eye and his look of thanksgiving and appreciation. But the thing that Deacon loved the most was when I would read the Word of God to him in his dying hours. And the last text that I read to my friend Deek was found in the sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews, where we read these words from the author of Hebrews. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after He, that is Abraham, patiently endured, He obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel.

Are you listening to this? God was determined to make absolutely clear so that there wouldn't be a shadow of a doubt about not only a promise, but the immutability, the impossibility of its being changed or weakened. Because He was so determined to do this, He confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. What are those two immutable things that make it impossible for God to lie? The first thing that is immutable is a promise that comes from God. When God makes a promise, it is there forever, and it cannot be broken.

And the second thing that is immutable is the oath by which He confirms that promise. And by these two things we see that it is impossible for God to lie. You know, we say with God all things are possible.

That means all things that are consistent with His character and with His nature. But ultimately there are some things that are impossible. God cannot be and not be at the same time in the same relationship. God can't die.

That's an impossibility. But the other impossibility is He cannot lie. That's one of the things that demonstrates the vast gulf between God and us. The Scripture says all men are liars. We are all covenant breakers, and when we lack faith what we do is we project upon God the weakness of our own character. We say, we lie, so why can't God? Well, it's possible for us to lie because we're fallen creatures under the influence of the father of lies, but not God.

For God to lie would be for God to stop being God altogether. And so He says, we have strong consolation. We who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

And I read the rest to Deek. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul sure and steadfast and which enters the presence behind the veil where our forerunner, even Jesus, has entered for us having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. That's what drives the Christian life, that we are children of Abraham, that he is the father of the faithful, and that to Abraham he made a promise and confirmed it by an oath, which promise was not only to him as an individual, but was to Abraham and to his seed. Do you see that when God made this covenant with Abraham and with his seed, He swore an oath based on Himself, on His own divine being. God has put His deity on the line to confirm the promise that God made to Abraham and to his seed. Is it any wonder when these promises are fulfilled that the servant of God, Zacharias, sings under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? For God has kept His promise to Abraham and to his seed.

Do you realize that's why we baptize our babies in this church? Because in that original covenant to Abraham, Abraham was to be circumcised as a sign of that covenant, and he was commanded by God to circumcise his son who not yet come to faith as a sign of the promise of God. That covenantal sign was not a sign of Abraham's faith.

It was not a sign of Isaac's faith. It was a sign of God's promise to all who believe. And though baptism is not exactly the same as circumcision, it follows in its path just as the Passover is fulfilled by the Lord's Supper. So circumcision is fulfilled by the new covenant sign of baptism, and that principle of family solidarity is never abolished ever in the New Testament.

In fact, in the book of Acts we see that when those people who come to faith as adults and receive the covenant sign, not only do they receive it, but their household, the principle that had been in view for century after century after century, that the children of believers are not saved automatically because their parents are saved, don't have faith automatically because their parents have faith, but what they do have is the promise of God given to Abraham and renewed again and again and again throughout the history of the old covenant and into the new covenant. So we are the people of the covenant, this covenant that is extolled by Zacharias, that God has remembered His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham to grant that we might be delivered from the hand of our enemies, that we might serve Him without fear. Do you remember the Exodus? What was God's message to Pharaoh? Let my people go just so that they can be free, just so they can do their own thing. No, let my people go that they can come out and worship me in my holy mountain.

So we who have enjoyed the Exodus brought by one greater than Moses, having received the fulfillment of this promise to Abraham, are rescued from our enemies for the purpose of serving the Lord without fear in holiness and in righteousness before Him. I don't know how many of you get… Let me see. How many of you get Table Talk magazine? Put your hand up if you do, and look around.

If your hand's not up, look around and see how many people's hands are up and ask yourself, what's wrong with me? You all need to get Table Talk magazine, and we always have a section in there called Coram Deo, which is an application of the daily study to your lives. And what does it mean?

It's Latin, a phrase that was central to the Reformation that means in the presence of God, that every Christian is to live his or her life always aware that you're living before the face of God in His presence, under His authority, to His glory, holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Amen. So much depth and insight from Dr. R.C. Sproul today as we have continued his verse-by-verse sermon series from the Gospel of Luke. I'm Lee Webb, and I'm glad you've joined us for this Lord's Day edition of Renewing Your Mind. As we make our way through this exposition of Luke, let me commend our resource offer. It's a digital download of Dr. Sproul's commentary of this gospel. It's nearly 600 pages of easy-to-read explanations of each verse. You'll have access to all of it when you request it today with a donation of any amount. Our offices are closed today, but you can give your gift and make your request at renewingyourmind.org.

Well at the end of the message today, you heard R.C. refer to Table Talk magazine. Each monthly issue looks at a particular area of theology or ethics. This month, for example, is on the Christian way, on what it means to live faithfully in the cultural confusion that surrounds us.

Several articles on that vital subject in this issue, including one by Dr. Rosaria Butterfield titled, In the Presence of My Enemies. You'll also find daily guided Bible studies. Right now and through the end of the year, we're going verse-by-verse through 2 Corinthians. You can obtain a free three-month trial subscription when you go to tritabletalk.com. Well, I hope you'll join us again next time as Dr. Sproul continues his study of Zacharias' song from Luke chapter 1. That's next Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind.