Today on the Lord's Day edition of Renewing Your Mind... More about that as he preaches this sermon from the Gospel of Luke chapter 1. We'll also see how God's tender mercy gives us the desire to cry out to Him in gratitude. As Zechariah did just before his son John the Baptist was born, he sang a song that recounted God's faithfulness.
Here's Dr. Sproul. We might say that this final section of the Benedictus gives to us the gospel in a nutshell as John's father now prophesied about his son and about his son's ministry for the Son of God. Let's look at it in verse 76.
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. We remember from other occasions in looking at the ministry of John the Baptist that the work of prophecy had ceased after the work of Malachi, the last of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, and the voice of prophecy was silent in Israel for 400 years. You know, we have this tendency when we look at ancient history in general and to the history of Scripture in particular to telescope together various portions and sections of time. We think, for example, that in the Old Testament miracles happened on every page and prophets could be found appearing from behind every bush. But a more careful study of that shows that there were concentrated periods of time in Old Testament history when there was an outbreak of miracles after years and years of prophetic voices being given to the people of Israel where the Word of God was announced by Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and all the rest.
Not a word from God, 400 years. And so many people believed that the voice of prophecy had been silenced forever. Yet those who were students of the prophecy of the Old Testament knew that some of the future prophecy then was that there would come a time in the future where one would rise up like Moses, for example. And again, in the last prophecy of the last prophet in the Old Testament from the book of Malachi, we read these words, "'Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and the judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with the curse, beloved.'" That was the last prophecy of the Old Testament where Malachi said, "'The day of the Lord is coming, but before it comes, I will send my prophet Elijah.'" And as we will see later on in the unfolding of the New Testament record and from the teaching of our Lord Himself that He said of John the Baptist, this is Elijah who was to come.
This is the one who comes in the Spirit and the power of Elijah. And in this prophetic hymn of Zacharias, he says, "'And you, child, you will be called the prophet of the highest, the prophet of the supreme God, and your task will be to go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way.'" This is also part of the prophecy of Isaiah that in the future before the Messiah would come, this forerunner anointed by God to restore the voice of prophecy would appear and cry to the people, "'Prepare the path of the Lord.
Make straight His roads. Be ready when He comes.'" And under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Zacharias now is prophesying that his Son will fulfill that Old Testament prophecy that John will be the forerunner of the Messiah. And together with the Messiah, he will be given the task to give knowledge of salvation of salvation to His people by the remission of sins and through the tender mercy of our God. So what's the mission? It's to inform people.
It's to give them knowledge. We sometimes think that the purpose of Jesus coming was to do miracles, and He certainly did that to heal the sick and so on, or His purpose to come was to buy our salvation through His atonement, and that's certainly true. But His earthly ministry just as John's began with preaching, with proclamation, with the announcement of the gospel. Early on it wasn't called the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was called the gospel of the kingdom of God, and He called His hearers to learn, to gain knowledge.
But He didn't set up a university and give courses in systematic theology. It was a particular kind of knowledge that our Lord and His predecessor were commissioned to give. It was the knowledge of salvation.
This knowledge of salvation is the knowledge that is being announced of reconciliation between God and mankind. And what is the absolute necessary condition for reconciliation? What is the thing that has to be before any reconciliation can ever take place? Well, before reconciliation can take place, there first has to be estrangement. People who aren't estranged don't ever need to be reconciled.
But we're at ease in Zion. We have calluses on our souls, and we think, we're not estranged from God. I don't have anything against Him. Why do I need to be reconciled?
I'll tell you why. Because in your natural state, you've declared war on Him. Your natural human proclivity, the natural tendency of your soul is enmity against God.
You consider Him your personal enemy. But whenever we declaw God and describe Him as a higher being or some cosmic force, there's nothing to fear. But when we talk about the God of the Bible, who is personal and who holds every one of us accountable for our lives and who tells us that we will experience everlasting damnation if we never repent and come to Christ. And even our culture today, it's okay as long as we remain vague to speak about God in general. But let a football player announce to the public that he's a disciple of Jesus Christ. Watch the hostility explode. Oh, you can talk about God, but when you get down to Jesus, you're down to the ultimate issue. If you are not in Christ, you're not reconciled. You're still at war. If you don't believe that war is real, read the newspaper every day. You don't have to read any further than the sports page.
Only God could enable Tim Tebow to beat the Pittsburgh Steel. Just what's so funny? But the song goes on to give us more of the content of the salvation, the knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins. For cancer patients, there's usually no better news than when the doctor tells them, your disease is in remission. It means it's gone away. It doesn't always stay away. We know the crushing disappointment of those who experience when it comes back. But with the remission of sins, beloved, it never comes back.
When God forgives a sinner, He forgives them forever. I knew no theology when the night I became a Christian. I told that story many times. I listened to a friend talk to me about Jesus as if He were real, as if my friend had a personal relationship with Him.
I'd never heard anything like that in my life. But as I listened, I knew I got my first knowledge of salvation. And I went to my college dormitory room and walked in the room and turned out the light and got on my knees before the bed, and the only thing I could say was, God, forgive me of my sins. And in that moment, I experienced the unspeakable joy, having my soul flooded with the absolute assurance that every sin I had ever committed and ever would commit was forgiven in that moment. And in that moment, I experienced salvation, which was the most decisive moment and defining moment of my entire life. Nobody can have their sins remitted and remain the same. And that's why when we come here, we come here not just to worship, but we come here to praise God and to thank God for what He has done for us. And I just hope that every person sitting in this room has known the joy of their salvation, has known that their sins have been fully and finally forgiven.
But my guess would be that that is nowhere near the truth. There must be many of you in the pews this morning who have no knowledge of salvation, who have never known that your sins have been forgiven. This is the doctrine of justification by faith that we talk about all the time theologically, that in the heart and soul of our justification, justification includes at its very core the remission of our sins. But how does it happen?
Listen to what the song says. Through, that is the means, by means of, means of, the how of forgiveness of sins through the tender mercy of our God. Theologically, we talk about being justified by faith through grace because of Christ, and that's true. And here in the song, the remission of sins is through the mercy of God. The forgiveness of sins is not something that you merit. It's not something that you strive to achieve. It's not that you can make up for your sins by works of righteousness. That is the worst myth ever perpetrated in the church. If you want to go on a fool's errand, chase the hope of redeeming yourself by your own achievements.
If any activity was doomed to failure, it would be that. The only way you can know salvation, the only way you can have the remission of sins is through the mercy of God. But it's not through the justice of God. It's through the mercy of God. But notice here under the influence of the Holy Spirit, how the mercy of God is described. I can't just pass over this. Through the tender mercy of God. You can get stopped by a policeman on the highway and have that policeman just give you a warning instead of giving you justice and the ticket you deserve. He says, I'll let you go this time, but he may do it with a scowl. He may do it with a frown.
You've received mercy, but it wasn't very tender. Years ago, I did a seminar on marriage for women, and in this seminar, I don't know how many women, 50, 100, whatever were there. I went through this exercise with them. I said, if you had the opportunity to have a male order husband, just like you order a car, especially with all the exact accessories that you want from your car dealer, now you get to order the husband of your dreams. Write down the most important characteristics and attributes that this man would have. And so we had all these ladies give all of their special characteristics that they wanted from a husband. And we tallied them all up, and there were two things that stood out, the two things that they wanted more than anything else in a man.
Listen to what they were. They wanted a man who was strong, and they wanted a man who was tender. They didn't want a strong man who was harsh. They didn't want a strong man who was a bully.
They didn't want to marry a mouse. They wanted to marry a man, but they wanted in that strength, in that manhood, to find tenderness, every woman's dream. And the husband of the church is the strong and mighty Jesus whose mercy is tender. When God forgave me of my sins, the mercy that He poured out on my soul that night was sweet and gentle and tender. That's how the mercy of God functions.
Oh, the few lines that are left we could let go till next week, but I won't do that. Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the day sprang from on high has visited us. I told you before how many multitudes of titles there are in the Scriptures for Jesus. Last week we looked at the title, The Horn of Salvation in the House of David.
Here in this same song is another title for Jesus. The day sprang from on high, in the Greek it's the Anatole. That means the breaking of the dawn, when the sun rises. That's the day spring, that moment where the night retreats, and the shadows fall away, and the lights come on in the morning dawn. That is who is described here as a title for Jesus, going back again to Malachi, where He said, when that day of the Lord comes, when Elijah will return, He said, the sun, not s-o-n, but s-u-n, the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings. That's the day spring from on high, the rising sun who visits us. The first Sunday we looked at this, we spent the whole sermon on the concept of visitation of God, and here it comes again. At the end of the song, we are visited by the Son of Righteousness. When that sun rises, when the day spring appears, what happens? He gives light to those who sit in darkness.
He gives light to those who are in the shadow who are in the shadow of death, light that makes it possible for us to see where our feet are going into the way of peace, remission of sins, the knowledge of salvation, the tender mercy of God, the Son of Righteousness coming in the midst of darkness and of the shadow of death. And the song ends with this footnote. So the child grew, John the Baptist, and became strong in spirit and was in the desert till the day of his epiphany, till the day of his manifestation to Israel, the desert, the traditional meeting place between man and God. The desert where Elijah fled for refuge, fed by the ravens, living in a cave. So now living on wild locusts and honey, this child grows stronger and stronger and stronger until the summons come to him saying, Now, prepare the way of the Lord. What a song! So much there.
You can't do justice in three weeks than that. We just scratched the surface. Read it again and again for your soul's edification. You can hear Dr. R.C. Sproul's love for Scripture there as we wrap up this section of Luke chapter 1 here on Renewing Your Mind.
As R.C. always reminded us, sound theology leads to doxology. I'm glad you could be with us today for our Sunday edition of the program. Each week, we're making our way through this gospel account of Jesus' life and ministry. And if you return each Sunday, you'll hear the entire book explained. Dr. Sproul was able to mine the depths of Scripture in the sermon series, and you can further your own study when you request our resource offer today.
It's a digital download of Dr. Sproul's expositional commentary of Luke. It's almost 600 pages, and you can request it today with your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. Our offices are closed today on the Sabbath, but you can give your gift and make your request online at renewingyourmind.org. You can also hear Dr. Sproul's teaching on RefNet. That's our 24-hour internet radio station. You can tune in for free at any time, and you'll be encouraged by the teaching of Dr. Sproul, along with the Ligonier Teaching Fellows and other trusted pastors, including Alistair Begg and John MacArthur. Plus, you'll hear audio books, Bible reading, and music. You can listen right now when you go to RefNet.fm, or you can download the free RefNet app for your Apple or Android device. Renewing Your Mind is the listener-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. We're glad you've joined us today, and on behalf of all of my colleagues here at Ligonier, we hope you find rest and comfort in God's truth this Lord's Day.
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