 Today, we're in chapter one here in the Gospel of Luke. We'll look at verses 39 through 56, but we'll begin reading together at verse 39, and I'll read to verse 45, and we'll be looking at this section. What we find in this passage here is the song of praise that Mary sings. It's a song of thanksgiving and praise to God. It's been called Mary's Magnificat, or Song of Praise. Let's begin reading though at verse 39, and we'll be reading to verse 45, and we'll get into our study. Beginning at verse 39, Luke writes, now, Mary rose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She spoke out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. Now as we begin, let's remember what has taken place up to this point. We remember that the angel Gabriel had just paid a visit on a young woman by the name of Mary. We know that Mary was from a city called Nazareth. The city of Nazareth was a small village, 70 some miles north of the city of Jerusalem there. And Gabriel had come with some incredible news for this young woman. Now as we've gone through this passage though, I wanna remind you that Luke had been very clear that Mary was a virgin who was betrothed to a man by the name of Joseph. We had seen that in chapter one, verse 27. And the reason that he brings up the fact that she is a virgin was to dispel all thoughts that Jesus could have been Joseph's physical son. It is also a way for Luke to present to us that Jesus Christ in his conception in this fashion, this miraculous conception is actually a fulfillment of what God has said in the Word. I reminded you of Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, where Isaiah who was writing over 700 years before Christ had prophesied by saying, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. That word Immanuel means God with us. And so the angel Gabriel paid a visit to Mary and told her that she was to have this child. As we have studied that, Mary was startled and initially she responded with fear, but the angel calmed her down with words of comfort and also gave her words of blessing. He said, by grace and God's grace, you will miraculously become pregnant and bear his son. Now, I wanna say this very quickly here and probably, I don't know if that's even possible, but I'll try. I want you to keep in mind that it's a miraculous conception, a miraculous conception, not an immaculate conception. And I wanted to make that statement because I realized that some people might equate the two. What we have is a miracle and a miraculous conception is just that. Mary has conceived in her womb a child though she has had no physical relationship with a man. That obviously is what we would call a miracle or a miraculous conception. We'll look at that in some detail in a little while. But there is a doctrine that some of you perhaps remember called an immaculate conception. That is not what is taking place here. Now, why am I differentiating? I'm differentiating so that you know that there is a difference between the two. A miraculous conception is a statement that Jesus Christ was born through the agency of the Holy Spirit. An immaculate conception is a doctrine that states that Mary was without sin. And that's why she's called immaculate. The word immaculate speaks of without stain, without sin. The Bible does not teach an immaculate conception. The Bible teaches a miraculous conception. And that's why Isaiah 7.14 is so important. That's why it speaks, behold, a virgin shall conceive and this will be a sign. It's because that is a miracle that is unheard of. That is something that God by his grace has done. And so we'll see this in some detail in a moment. I wanted to differentiate and make that clear for you. And we'll look at that in a moment. But by God's grace, he said you will miraculously become pregnant and you will bear a son. And that son will be his son. And in verse 31, he said what his name will be. His name shall be Jesus. Now, the word Jesus is the word Jehovah is salvation. And so his name is gonna be Jehovah is salvation. The word Jesus there is the Greek word. The Hebrew word is Yeshua. Yeshua comes from the word Joshua. Joshua, Yeshua, Joshua means Jehovah is salvation. And he's the one who's bringing salvation. And in Matthew's gospel, chapter one, verse 21, when the angel later on is speaking to Joseph, the angel says to him, she will bring forth the son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And so Jesus, the name Jesus is to remind us that his point of coming in the first place was to bring salvation. Jesus is the savior. And actually his birth is going to be the fulfillment of the first prophecy you find of a savior in scripture that goes all the way back to the Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter three, verse 15. Because in the book of Genesis, in chapter three, we have the fall. We have Adam and we have Eve. We have Eve being beguiled by Satan, Adam taken of the forbidden fruit, though he willfully and understood what he was doing was wrong. He wasn't deceived. He took of that fruit and as such he failed. He sinned. His sin nature is now what we receive the penalty of that and that when Adam fell, the whole human race fell along with him. And so God, all the way back in Genesis at the fall, actually gave the first promise for salvation, found in chapter three, verse 15, where it says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. God speaking to Satan said that the seed of the woman who is Jesus Christ was gonna crush his head and that's what Jesus Christ ultimately does on the cross. But God had given to a mankind, even in that initial fall, a promise and the promise was salvation. And so we are now at that point where God is fulfilling his promise. Now Paul speaks of that in the book of Galatians in chapter four, verses four and five. The apostle Paul said, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. The fullness of time has come and God has entered into history through the conception of his son in a miraculous way and he is bringing the promise of salvation. Now Gabriel, as we've seen him, first appeared to Zacharias and announced to Zacharias that he was going to have a son. The son's name, he said, shall be John or Jehovah is gracious. And what he's going to be is the forerunner of the Messiah. Once again, that's a promise, that's a fulfillment of a promise that God had made to Israel. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, once again, Isaiah chapter 40, verse three, the Bible said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is another way of speaking that God was using a man, this man's name was John and John was the prophetic voice of God, crying to others and telling them they need to prepare a way for the Lord because the Lord is on his way. In Malachi 3, one, the scripture says, I send my messenger, he will prepare the way before me. And so John, in the way that he was announced and the way that he came into being through the natural relationship of his father, Zacharias and his mother, Elizabeth, is actually, once again, God moving in history in order that he might save people because Malachi and Isaiah and other prophecies in the Old Testament speak concerning this forerunner, John is the one who is being spoken of and will be seeing him in a little while, but Gabriel had come and spoken to Zacharias and said, this is gonna happen. And so after he had spoken to Zacharias and all of that, he spoke to Mary and he announced that God had chosen her to bear his son. And again, she was sexually pure and so by his spirit, God, if you will, brought life into her womb. Now he later told her husband, Joseph, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And as this is all taking place, as we left off last time at verse 38, she basically simply said, I'm his servant and let it be done as he has declared. And so those are the events that are immediately preceding verse 39. So in verse 39, now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. Mary leaves Nazareth, goes south, goes to the hills outside of Jerusalem. That would have been about a four or five day journey. And it may be that she's responding to Gabriel's news that her relative Elizabeth is pregnant. Why would she go down there though? Let me give you something very briefly here that might be of benefit to you. It may be something that you might wanna think about. Why would she go and see Elizabeth? Well, one we know that the angel had said that your relative, Elizabeth, is pregnant, even though she at one time was barren. And so as we went through that last time, I mentioned to you that he may have been suggesting to Mary that you ought to go down and see her because she has been barren, but now she is conceived to send in her old age. And as he said in verse 36, and she's now in the sixth month for her who was called barren. And so it may be that he was suggesting for her to do that and I think that that's a possibility. But there's a second thing that I wanna share with you briefly about, but actually is something that I was really spoken to today as I was preparing this Bible study. One, remember with me that Elizabeth had conceived after Gabriel had made an announcement to her husband Zacharias. That tells us that she's capable of understanding what Mary is going through because she has an experience that is similar in that there was an announcement made about a pregnancy. And in her case, because she was at an age when conception really wasn't something that she necessarily was going to experience and she recognized herself as being barren. The thing that I found interesting as I was preparing this was the knowledge that Mary went to speak to Elizabeth probably for a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons undoubtedly is because she could share experientially with Elizabeth because Elizabeth was in a place in her life that she could actually relate to what Mary was speaking about. And so there's a practical application that I'd like to give to you, very simply this. Be very careful who you share your spiritual experiences with because some people aren't gonna relate to them. Some people can't, they don't understand. If you've been walking with the Lord for a number of years and you have a friend who's a new Christian and you try and share with them some of the things that the Lord has taught you over life, oftentimes a new Christian hasn't got a clue what you're talking about. They can't relate to it. They don't understand that. You've been a Christian 10, 15, 20, 30 years. You've seen the Lord do incredible things and then you've begun to learn to hear the voice of the Lord. You can hear the voice of the Lord when it's quiet and you can hear the voice of the Lord through a storm. You have learned to hear his voice. Your ears attuned to him. And as such, because of all the experiences you've had in your walk with Christ, there are times the Holy Spirit has spoken to you in such a direct way through his word or through an answer to prayer and circumstances surrounding some things that you begin to say, you know, this is the Lord. God is doing something here. So you may speak to somebody and say to them, you know, the Lord has laid it on my heart and this is what he's doing. And that person you're speaking to looks at you like you just escaped from the crazy house. You know, they go, all right, sure, yeah, yeah, God is speaking to you. Yeah, I understand that. You know, there are some people who just don't relate to that at all and you might get frustrated. You might get upset. You might feel even put down a little bit ashamed even because you opened your heart and shared some of the spiritual things that God is doing. And in doing so, the person that you spoke to just can't relate to it at all. Be careful who you share the treasures of the Spirit that God has placed in your heart with because sometimes they just don't relate or understand. And you can feel so misunderstood that you could actually start thinking, maybe I'm just nuts, maybe I'm crazy. You'd have to walk in with the Lord for a while, you begin to hear his voice more clearly. And yeah, you can hear his voice in a loud storm and you can hear his voice when it's quiet because your ear is becoming a tune to the voice of the master. When our church was young, we were doing Sunday night Bible studies. Small group of people, less than a hundred, probably around 60 or so, in a little building that we rented in Ontario right off of Grove in Francis. And we had a 2,500 square foot building that had been, basically, we built out to have a couple of offices, a small area that was a children's ministry area, and then a small sanctuary that sat maximum 120 people. But we normally had 50 or 60 people. And so within that 50 or 60 person congregation, we had two or three babies that had been born to the mamas who were attending the Bible study at that time. And I can remember teaching Bible studies and as I was teaching, because the nursery with our small babies was maybe 12 feet away from me and there was no insulation there. It would just had a window and all of that. You could hear the babies crying the minute they began to whimper. You can hear them because this room was so small and it was not insulated against any kind of noise and I would be teaching like I am right now and 12 feet away, I could hear a baby's cry. And I, as the teacher, would look out at a small group of people and I would begin to scan the congregation and you would see the mothers who had babies as their eyes, their eyebrows that actually lift up like and then even though they're trying to be polite and look at me, I knew they weren't. They were listening for the voice of the babies and you could see that. They'd be going like that and their eyes would be kind of going back and forth. Though their faces looking directly at me, their eyes are going off to where the babies are and then one at a time, you would see them go like that, look and then relax and go back to the Bible study. That told me that wasn't their baby because the baby's mama would inevitably just keep looking over there and keep looking over there and I found that fascinating because I realized that mamas can hear the voice of their baby when to us, that's just a kid crying, shut it up. But not to mama, to mama, that's my baby and I began to learn things like that. We already had our children too and I understood it in a certain way but I began to see that as it was practiced and I began to realize that even if several babies were crying, you could still pick up the sound of your little bread. I'm just kidding. You could hear the sound of your baby. You can hear their voice. Your ear is a tune. Even there's noise all around. It's true, isn't it ladies? I mean, if there's a playground filled with kids and you hear somebody start to cry, don't you stop for a moment and say oh, there they go again. No, don't you stop for a minute and go, that's mine. I have seen that so many times, even if it's loud, even if cars are driving by, it doesn't really matter because your ear is a tune for that one voice and that's absolutely, absolutely true. Some of you saw the march of the penguins or whatever it is. I forget the name a bit. And the mama has that baby and out of the thousands and thousands of little chicks, she knows the voice of that one that is hers because her ear is a tune to that voice and it amazes you to see all of these little chicks making noise and the mama knows the exact one that is hers. Well, you wanna know something? As a Christian, I wanna learn to hear the voice of the Lord when he speaks. It doesn't matter if it's loud, it doesn't matter if he's whispering, but I need to learn to be attuned to the voice of the shepherd. And when you're attuned to the voice of the shepherd and he begins to speak, you're gaining experience with him because you're learning the ways of the Lord. You read the Word of God, he teaches certain things, you trust him in those things, he proves faithful as he always is. You learn those things and then somehow you begin to share. As you share, some people are there saying, I understand that, I understand, I relate to that. Yeah, I know, because the Holy Spirit has spoken to my heart in the same way. That's a person normally that you can have good and strong fellowship with because they're relating on the same level. But sometimes you may say something, you know the Holy Spirit is putting this on my heart and there's just no relating, it just isn't something that you relate to. So when you're sharing, I find it interesting to note that when you're sharing, it's always a wise thing to share with people who have a maturity and an experienced level that is similar to yours because then that's when the hearts are gonna be able to agree and understand one another. You see, Mary went and spoke to Elizabeth probably for a variety of reasons, but one of them is that Elizabeth had recently had a similar kind of experience. And so as Mary goes to speak to her cousin, they're able to relate spiritually in this way. The second thing I wanna point out, and this I'm just gonna touch on for a minute. I don't know how many of you went and saw the Nativity movie recently, but in the movie, when Mary goes to see Elizabeth, you see Mary greeting Elizabeth outside, but the Bible more clearly and correctly presents it in verse 40 as she entered into a house. And so she enters into the house and she's in the house of Zacharias and she greets Elizabeth, verse 41. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And so at this greeting, the baby leaps with joy at the presence of Messiah. Elizabeth in verse 44 tells us the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And so what has taken place here is the baby is leaping with joy at the presence of Messiah. Now, this is interesting. Jesus is less than a month old and John is six months old, but I want you to notice that it doesn't say, and the fetus leaped in the presence of the embryo. And that to me is interesting. It's, you know, the baby. When a woman wants to keep the child, she calls the child her baby. When the woman does not want to keep the child, the child becomes a fetus. And there's a difference of mentality there. The Bible makes it very clear here that Jesus, though he has just begun to be formed in the womb of his mother, is still a person, not a potential human being. He is a person. I want you to see that. And John, who is six months in the womb, actually leaps with recognition. And so what you have is human interaction taking place here. And the Bible makes it very clear that these are two, not potential humans, these are two people that are having an interaction. Now, in Psalm 139 verses 13 through 16, the psalmist said, you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in your book, they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. Human life beginning at conception and the psalmist extolling God for that. You all know that I have four children, but some of you know that I actually had five. We lost one of our children, a child that was between, in terms of age, between my son David and my son Joseph, and Marie miscarried. And I can tell you that when Marie miscarried that baby, that tore my heart up, because I did not see this miscarriage as being while it was a potential life. I recognized that miscarriage as my child, and our child went home to be with the Lord. And I can tell you that there is a difference in attitude when you want a baby and when you don't. And the Bible makes it very, very clear that that baby in your womb, though people today will use other words, euphemisms, to try and take away the shock and severity of the reality of what takes place when you lose a child or perhaps when you voluntarily have that child's life removed from your womb. But the bottom line is, is that is a child. And the psalmist made it very clear. And not only that, Luke is making it very clear. He said the babe leaped in the womb of the mother, and that babe was only six months old. And yet that baby, by the movement of the Holy Spirit, is actually doing a joyful homage to Messiah, who is less than a month old. And so this gives us, I think, a pretty clear picture of how God views the child's life in the womb. It's not a potential life, he is alive. Now in verse 42, it says, then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for indeed as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. Now some of you recognize this verse, by the way, in verse 42, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. You recognize that phrase? Those of you who are raised in the Catholic Church know exactly where that phrase is. We were taught a prayer called the Hail Mary. And that is basically where this comes from. Basically it comes from those words right there. And so what happens here is the Elizabeth is now filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is giving Elizabeth the knowledge that Mary is carrying Messiah. This knowledge that she has, by the way, didn't come through ordinary means. How could it? I mean, ladies, those of you who are mamas, you didn't even know that you were pregnant for the first month. And there's no way that it showed. There's no way that you were showing within a month. If you were anything like my wife, and perhaps this may be too general, but Mary didn't begin to show her pregnancies until she was about five months along, at least five months, six months sometimes. You wouldn't even know that she was pregnant. She didn't show. She didn't begin to show for several months. And so Elizabeth, when Mary walks in, doesn't have a clue. How would she know Mary didn't waddle on in with maternity clothes on? So how does she know? How does she know that this woman, her cousin, is pregnant? Well, the Holy Spirit made her to know that. The Holy Spirit moved within her. Her child leaps within her womb. And the Spirit fills her, and that's what's happening. That's why she greets her in this way in verse 42. Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb. So the knowledge came not through normal means, but by supernatural means. It came through the Spirit of God. Now, in Matthew chapter 11, verse 27, Jesus said, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. All spiritual truth is revealed by the Spirit, is revealed through God. And so she didn't learn this through ordinary means. That's why Jesus, in another place in Matthew 1311, speaking to his apostles said, it's been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Supernatural or spiritual knowledge doesn't come through ordinary means. You can't go to school and gain spiritual knowledge. You can get tools that can help you to dig into the Word of God, but it takes the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you. It's an interesting scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter two, I believe it's verse 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. The natural man is the unregenerated or the person who's not born again. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. That word received speaks of welcoming. So the unspiritual man does not welcome, receive the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Because they are foolishness to him. That word foolish is where we get the word imbecilic or moronic, because it makes no sense. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So unless the Lord reveals truth to you, you're not gonna know it. And unless the Holy Spirit were to have awakened Elizabeth to the fact that her cousin has come in pregnant with Messiah, she'd have just said, hi Mary, how are ya? But because the Holy Spirit gave her that knowledge, she was able to greet her in the way that she did, because it was the Spirit of God moving her to do so. And notice in verse 43 how it says, why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told to her from the Lord. Now I find it interesting, I wanna point one more thing out before we move on. I want you to notice how when it says, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, turn with me to chapter 11 of Luke for a moment. I wanna show you something, Luke chapter 11. In Luke chapter 11 verses 27 and 28, interesting passage. A certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you. Well, I write it interesting to note that that is said later on even after Elizabeth had spoken to Mary and had said blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But I want you to see the response of Jesus to what this woman was saying because it goes on to say, but he said more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Now, without getting ahead of myself and turning us back to Luke chapter one, and we'll see this in a minute. I had somebody approach me recently with a very good question. And the question related to this movie that's out this nativity story. And the question related to Mary and I was asked, do you think that the movie elevated Mary too much? My response, and it's just my response, this is not necessarily, you're not gonna find David's response in the book of first Corinthians or anything like that. First book of David chapter one. This is just my response. My response was this, to be honest with you, in the movie, I don't think Mary was portrayed as incredible as she must have really been in real life, frankly. I look at Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, as such an incredible, exceptional, unbelievable woman even at her early age, because we don't know how old she was when she conceived. At that time, the typical woman getting married would have been somewhere around 14 years old, probably no more than 16. And you're gonna see this in just a moment. Her response in verse 46 following in what is called the Magnificant shows you something about this woman. And so I said, to be honest with you, I don't think that she was presented as incredible as she really was in real life. I think that Mary must have been the most incredible woman she was on the face of the earth at that moment. She was, by God's grace, given the incredible blessing and honor of carrying his son. Listen, when our babies were small, you almost had to fill out a 50 page questionnaire so I could have you babysit. Anybody understand what I just said? I wasn't one of these parents that said, hey, somebody will watch them, throw them on them, let's get out, we gotta get out. I wasn't that way at all. And it's still not that way. Josiah, you know, when he stays with somebody, you better believe, I think and I pray, I hope they're okay, hope they treat him okay, I hope they, you know, I'm that way. I'm very much a doting father and a doting grandfather. Absolutely, no apology, that's just the truth. So if God is going to have a woman bear his son, I suspect, he's pretty selective. I suspect he is. And so Mary is an incredible woman. There's no doubt in my mind at all. She is blessed amongst women, the most blessed of all women. And so I say that because I find it amazing that when this woman says to Jesus, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that nursed you, which is what Elizabeth basically is saying, Jesus's response is yes, but more blessed is the one who hears my word and does it. Do you know who he's talking about? You, he's talking about you. He's talking about me, more blessed. That's an incredible concept to me. More blessed than Mary, more blessed because you hear the message of the gospel and embrace it and enter into eternal life because of the goodness of the Lord. And you're blessed because God has given to you ears to hear what the spirit is saying so that you can have a relationship with God. And you are blessed by that through his word. The one who hears his word, he says and does it. Not just the person who goes to a Bible study or picks up the Bible once in a while and reads it. The one who hears my word and the one who does it is blessed. And so in Christianity, it is beyond simple mental adherence to doctrinal propositions. Christianity is the transformation of a life through embracing God's word and the changes that ensue because of a relationship with him. Notice here in Luke chapter one, verse 45, how it says, blessed is she who believed for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. Faith that honors, that God honors isn't simply mentally agreeing. It's acting on what is heard. See, unlike Zacharias, Mary simply said, let it be done to me according to your word. Zacharias said, how am I gonna know these things for sure? Now the Bible in James chapter two, verse 20, simply says, faith without works is dead. So Mary didn't simply hear what was being said. She acted upon what she heard and she believed and as she believed, she submitted. As she submitted, she submitted to the plan of God for her life and she exercised faith. Hebrews 11.6 says, without faith, it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The entire Bible is a testimony of those who have stepped out in faith and trusted God. You see that from the Old Testament to the New. You see people in the Bible like Enoch. You see men like Noah or Abraham. You see Joseph and Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Deborah, David. You see the prophets. You see all of these people in the Old Testament who heard the voice of the Lord and acted in faith and you see that as they acted in faith that God honored them and God used them in tremendous ways. When you look in the New Testament, you also see people who are out there stepping out in faith, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the bottom line is this, is to trust him and put your faith into action. This is what Mary did and as a result she became the mother of the Son of God. Now Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit has rejoiced in God my savior for he has regarded the lowly state of his maid servant for behold henceforth all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. The rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in a remembrance of his mercy. As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever and Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her house. What you see here in Mary's Magnificat and her song of praise and exaltation is almost every line is a scripture. This is a woman who was steeped in the word of God and what she is doing there under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is she's quoting scripture about what has taken place. This is a girl 14 to 16 years old who has a mastery of God's word and her song of praise is made up of scripture. Now it begins here in verse 46 with her magnifying the Lord. That word magnifying speaks of glorifying or praising God. The Psalmist in Psalm 69 verse 30 said, I will praise the name of God with a song. We'll magnify him with thanksgiving. So he's worthy. He is worthy of my praise because he has done great things. Now interestingly enough when she says, my soul magnifies the Lord. She goes on into verse 47 and says, and my spirit has rejoiced in God. My what? My savior. I spoke to you earlier about the immaculate conception. Only sinners need a savior. Mary was born with a sin nature. So I praise him. I praise him because he is my savior. He's the one who saves us from our sins. So he is my son and my savior. The Bible in Romans 3.23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Once again, as I was raised, and some of you were raised in the same way, perhaps have been trained to believe this, I was raised to believe that Mary was without sin. I remember the story where Jesus was speaking and this woman had been caught in adultery in the very act. And the men were standing around him and they dragged this woman to Jesus and they said, we caught this woman in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law said, such should be stoned. But what do you say? You all remember that story. And then Jesus kneels down and begins to ride on the ground, looks up, but they kept on asking him. Once again, as he's riding, he stands up and he says, well, let him who's without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone at her. And then Mary threw a rock and he said, mom, stay out of this. No, stupid joke. I've been waiting for years to tell it. And I'll put it back in my joke bag and never again. Sometimes that's the way we see it. But the Bible makes it very clear that Mary needed a savior. Keep that in mind because only sinners need saviors. I've had my share of discussions and sometimes what you would call arguments over this area. And I was sharing one time with a very devoted Catholic friend of mine who I love very much. And he said, Mary was without sin. And my response was very simply this. If Mary was without sin, why didn't they crucify her on the cross and leave Jesus alone? The fact is, Mary had sin and it takes a perfect sinless sacrifice. So if she not only had a son, she also gave birth to her own savior. And that's what she's saying here. She's saying it very clearly. My spirit has rejoiced in God, my savior. Verse 48, for he has regarded the lowly state of his maid servant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me. Though I am simply a servant, he has looked upon me with his favor and has given me his grace. The Psalmist in Psalm 113, 7 and 8 says it this way, he raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy out of the ash heap that he may seat him with princes, with the princes of his people. He's regarded the lowly state of his maid servant. And she says, all people will call me blessed. I am blessed by God, not by my own internal virtue. They will recognize God's blessing on me. It's been said, what dishonor do those do to this holy woman who give her names and characters that her pure soul would have hated and which properly belong to God, as she says, her savior. She goes on in verse 50 and she says, and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. So throughout their sacred history, God had shown himself merciful to those who loved him. And he also revealed himself as a God who saves, saves those who call out to him. Now, obviously, when he goes on and says, he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He's helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever. Obviously speaking to us in that God not only will take care of us and he does, he will prosper us, I believe, in a physical way. But that which prospers most is our spiritual condition. Jesus spoke about being poor in spirit. And when he was referring to that, it's blessed as the one who recognizes their spiritual poverty. Blessed is the one who understands that before God, they are spiritually bankrupt. Blessed is the one who understands that they cannot bring anything to God that is gonna be deemed worthy of him accepting them. And therefore, when God through his Holy Spirit awakens us to our spiritual poverty, at that point we can ask God for forgiveness and we can be made rich in the spirit of God. Because as we open our heart to him and say, God be merciful to me, I am a sinner, I can have a relationship with God. My problem is, is I am constantly trying to pay for things instead of simply receiving by grace that which I cannot pay for. I was in Biola. Marie and I were, I believe we were, I believe she was pregnant with Corinne. I owed Biola the college as I was going there, something like a thousand dollars. And I had to drop out of school. And I remember telling Marie, honey, we have to go and I have to talk to the guy in finances. And so she made an appointment for me. I went after work and sat down with this guy. I owed the school, and this was back in the early 70s, I owed the school a thousand dollars. And I sat down with the guy and the guy looks at me and he says, well, you owe us a thousand dollars. You wanna make payments? And I said, yes, that's why I'm here. So he said to me, how much can you afford? And so I said, I don't know. He said, you owe us X amount of dollars. Can you make payments? I'll do my best. Can you give us $100 a month? I looked at Marie and she shook her head, no. And I said, no. He says, can you pay us $75 a month? And I looked at Marie, she shook her head, no. And I said, no. He said, can you pay us $50 a month? And I looked at Marie and she shook her head and I said, no. He says, what can you pay us? And I looked at him and I said, I don't know. And I looked at Marie, what can we afford? She says, about $25. So I looked at him and I said, we can afford $25. He said, oh, okay. Said, okay, we'll set up a pay scale for you and you'll pay us back. And I said, thank you very much. Now, I have to tell you something that may not matter to some, but I think some can relate to this. When he said, can you pay us the first amount, my immediate response was yes. That was my first response. I was gonna say yes because I'm one of these guys who learned from my father that your bills must be paid on time. And you do anything you can to make sure that bill is paid. My dad was the kind of dad who would pay his bills and whatever was left over, he fed his family. It's kind of unusual today, but that's how my dad was. My dad told me this in so many words. He said, the best thing you have is your name. The best thing you have is your name. So be a person of integrity, pay your bills on time. My dad would go to work when he was ill. He didn't take days off. He would work even on his vacation to make sure that his family was careful when his bill was paid. That's how I was raised. And so there I am as a young man, using my dad as an example of what a husband ought to be. And I've never said to somebody, I can't pay you back. I will do anything I can to pay you back. If I have to work extra, whatever, you wanna know something? It's the first time in my life that I had to look somebody in the eye and say, I can't, I don't have the money, I can't pay you back. It was so humbling for me to look at this guy that way and to say I can't, I wish I could. I want to, but I can't. And you know what happened, guys? You know, he brought it down to, I forget, $25, $15. It was a very small amount. And we had X amount of years to pay it off. And I went home so humbled, so humbled. And I got a phone call the next day and it was from Biola and they said, you wanna know something? Somebody called up, asked about your bill and they paid it off. You don't know what's the thing. My God, that he honors, even the desire, even the desire. My God does that. He takes care of us because he loves us. He provides for us because he loves us. And as I was reading this, I just remembered that, he has filled the hungry with good things, the rich, he sent away empty. The Lord will take care of us. In verse 52, it says he put down the mighty from the thrones, exalted the lowly. So unjust rulers will be overthrown and righteous rulers take their place. He fills the hungry with good things, the rich he sends away empty. The spiritually impoverished are satisfied in him. The self-sufficient remain empty. He spoke to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her house. Well, she went home to a firestorm because she's been gone. And when she left, they didn't know that she was pregnant, but when she got back, very shortly thereafter, she began to show and she returned home and stepped right into a fire. We'll look at that closely next time we're together.