Luke 1:26-38

[0:00] Gospel of Luke in chapter one. Some of you may be well familiar with what we find in Luke chapter one and some of you may be thinking, Spencer, this seems like something you might should have considered preaching three weeks ago.

[0:26] This is kind of sort of the beginning of the Christmas account in Luke's Gospel. This isn't the part where Jesus is actually born, but it is the beginning of that.

[0:40] Those of you that have heard me preach, preach over the years, you know I don't preach just because a certain holiday is afoot or just because a certain time of year or a time of season or anything along those lines come back in July I might preach you an Easter sermon.

[0:58] You know, come Easter I might preach you another Christmas sermon. Who knows? This isn't really a Christmas sermon, but it is out of the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke.

[1:12] In the beginning parts of the Gospel of Luke we'll pick up reading here in just a little while in verse 26, but leading up to that point in the first four verses of the Gospel of Luke we have a wonderful beginning to this account and it's Luke basically saying that he is read, he is studied, he is dissected the things that he's seen and the things that he's heard and looked at things from all angles and he is presenting it as the truth, his account as the truth.

[1:55] So that very small nutshell compared to the first four verses, then we read about an account of a priest named Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth Zechariah was in the temple performing his priestly duties and he was burning incense.

[2:09] The Bible teaches that his lot fell that he should burn incense, so if he was burning incense in the temple that means he was back at the very threshold of the Holy of Holies.

[2:21] He was not in the Holy of Holies, he was in the Holy place, but not the Holy of Holies, not back where God actually was. But he was burning incense and the Bible says that to the right of the altar of incense there was an angel of the Lord that appeared to this priest named Zechariah and I should not neglect to say that Zechariah and Elizabeth, the Bible teaches were well stricken in years, they were old and they did not have a child, but this angel appears unto Zechariah and he says the Lord has heard your prayer Zechariah which makes me wonder what exactly was Zechariah's praying while he was back there burning incense to the Lord.

[3:03] He being in his old age or was it a prayer that he had been praying for years that God not grant he and his wife Elizabeth a child, but regardless Gabriel appears to the right of the altar of incense and tells Zechariah that he and his wife would indeed have a child and the Bible continues on and Zechariah sexually asked him, he says how can this be that knowing that my wife and I are well stricken in years knowing how old we are actually he said how shall I know this Zechariah was wanting a sign of some kind and we'll get into that a little bit later in the reading that we'll be doing as far as preaching goes.

[3:48] But in short the Bible says that Gabriel this messenger from God this angel of God his reaction tells me that Gabriel was kind of taken aback by Zechariah's reply because he says I am Gabriel I am Gabriel that stands in the very presence of Almighty God in other words how dare you question me how dare you question the message from God that I have been sent to convey to you and he tells him he says because of your unbelief you're going to be stricken dumb he said you'll be dumb you won't be able to speak long story short the people were marveling that Zechariah took so long in the temple and when he came out he couldn't speak so the words of the angel were absolutely true as far as that goes but Elizabeth did conceive she conceived regardless of the age of Zechariah and Elizabeth Elizabeth did conceive and those of you who read your Bibles and know and know those of you that may not know who the one that she conceived was the forerunner of Jesus Christ whom we know as John the Baptist in the scriptures so she conceived and the story continues here just a little while or a little bit in the Bible now all that being said in verse 25 we read Elizabeth saying thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men so Elizabeth was old Zechariah was old but she's talking about her reproach that was among among men what was her reproach her reproach was that she was barren she couldn't she couldn't have children her and Zechariah it's not because of the lack of effort on their part she could not conceive and so the Lord had taken this reproach from her taking it off of her and this was this was something heavy for a woman to bear in the Bible this is something heavy for a woman to bear 2000 years later even now that if a woman cannot conceive a child can't carry a child it's a heavy load for a woman to bear but even more so in the Bible days it was looked upon the woman was looked upon as being cursed of God in the Bible days if she could not conceive or she could not carry a child so this is the reproach that was taken off of Elizabeth but all this being said we'll pick up in verse 26 and read through about verse 38 so Luke chapter 1 verse 26 says and in the sixth month the angel Gabriel will sit from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary and the angel came in unto her and said hell thou that are highly favored the

[7:02] Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and cast her in her mind what manner of salutation this should be and the angel said unto her fear not Mary for thou has found favor with God and behold thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus and he shall he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end then said Mary unto the angel how shall this be seeing I know not a man and the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the high shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God and behold thy cousin Elizabeth she had thought she had also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who who was called barren for with God nothing shall be impossible and Mary said behold the hand made of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her so back to verse six verses six or verse twenty six and twenty seven and in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto this unto a city of Galilee named

[8:37] Nazareth to a virgin a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary so we have here the same this angel Gabriel this messenger angel angel which I've already said had already showed up at the temple and the temple was at Jerusalem but he had he had showed up at the temple to this priest whose name was Zechariah's and he had conveyed the message to Zechariah's that he would indeed his wife would indeed conceive a son and now the same angel has gone into the hill country into this hill country of Nazareth this place at the scripture says it's a it says in John chapter one the question is ask can any good thing come out of Nazareth so the angel goes to the same place and folks this this in and of itself this should give us a great amount of comfort this should bring us a great amount of faith in the word of God that even though it was this angel gay girl that had went to Zechariah's and told him at the temple in the middle of

[9:48] Jerusalem where all the hustling and bustling of life was going on this angel went there and he give him the tidings that he and his wife Elizabeth would be that would become parents in their old age but here we have the same messenger that is coming from Almighty God into the city of Nazareth to this woman who was nothing more than a peasant and she was a spouse to this man who was the village carpenter and his name was Joseph there was nothing special about them as far as the world could see there was nothing in their looks there was nothing in their life there was nothing in their bank account there was nothing about their house there was nothing about their ways that would have separated them from the rest of the world but this same angel comes with a message of glad tidings to her folks it doesn't matter if it's at the temple if it's in Jerusalem or if it's in this city of Nazareth it doesn't matter if it's at the fanciest church here in the Tri-Cities or if it's in the lowliest church in the backwoods of the mountains the same messenger can come from God the Holy Spirit of God can show up at either place he can convey a message to you he can convey a message to me he can bring us the word of God he can bring us good tidings of great joy just like this messenger did unto Mary don't think that your life is too insignificant for God to take notice of don't think that just because you're you you see yourself as a nobody you see yourself as someone that the rest of the world doesn't care about or the rest of the world does not know about don't think that just because of the way that you and the world see you that God sees you the same God sees each one of his children as very precious individuals God sees each one of his children as precious and we have all gained the favor of God folks if you are here and you are born again if you've been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ if you are of those that have been redeemed of those that have been reconciled back to God the Father if you are of those if you can truly say that you are a born again child of the one true God you have indeed gained favor with Almighty

[12:17] God Mary here the Bible teaches that she had found favor in the sight of God and this favor came by nothing more than the grace of Almighty God and when the His favor came to me and when salvation came to me it was nothing more than grace that was imparted to me by God doesn't matter who you are folks it is all by grace it doesn't matter if it's the most popular preacher in the world or the most popular preacher in the country or in the state or in your in your locality it doesn't matter if it's the loveliest lay member in the congregation the grace of God covers both of them equally the grace of God works on their behalf equally it doesn't matter how you view yourself or how the world does the grace of God came to you if you're born again the grace of God covers you and the grace of God as we sing in the old song amazing grace the grace of God will take you home one of these days after a while hallelujah and it's by God's grace that Mary found favor in the eyes of God in the sight of God this angel says this is the angel came in under her and said hell thou that are that are highly favored the Lord is with the blessed art thou among women verse 29 and when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and casting her mind what manner of salutation this should be says when she saw him she was troubled and folks I got news for you if there was an angel that appeared unto you or if there is an angel that appeared unto me it would trouble us just as it did Mary here it would trouble us there's a reason that the words fear not are normally the first words that are spoken by angels in the scripture they're not the the beings that we have concocted in our heads that they are they don't all have blonde hair and blue eyes they don't all look beautiful like a beautiful woman that we might have that we might have them in our minds that they that they might look like folks angels were fearful looking beings angel angels were were odd looking creatures there is a reason that the words fear not came and they these words were spoken to Mary here says in verse 30 the angel said unto her fear not married for thou has found favor with God so she when she first saw this baby this angel it says it cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be imagine this woman here that it uh there was as I've already said she was just a peasant she was pretty much what the world would say was a nobody she was just making her way and she was a spouse to this man Joseph an angel from the Lord appearing unto her I can I can imagine what her thinking what manner of salutation that it must be but the angel continues and he says you have found favor with the Lord says the angel said under her fear not married for thou has found favor with God and behold thou shall conceive and thy womb and bring forth the sun and shall call his name Jesus Mary would have been a woman of faith Mary would have been a woman in the lineage of the Jews Mary would have understood that this angel was from Almighty God but when it says that she wondered what type of salutation this angel might be coming to her and what type of salutation this was toward her I can imagine the things that Mary must have been thinking what have I done or what is going to be done unto me folks if this happened here in 2023 or 2024 now if this happened to a regular church member we would have all kinds of thoughts I wonder what blessing the Lord is planning on bestowing upon me I wonder what blessing this angel is going to be telling me about

[16:22] I wonder what good thing is going to come my way but Mary I believe in her meekness and Mary I believe in her loneliness wonder what an angel of the Lord was doing talking to her and we should all have that meek of an attitude folks ain't none of us deserves the presence of God right ain't none of us deserves the favor of God and they none of us deserves the grace of Almighty God as I've already said it was a pure grace that that this woman here was chosen by God to birth the only begotten Son of God and the Scripture continues in verse 31 again and behold I shall conceive and thy woman bring forth the Son and shall call his name Jesus and we know from the Scriptures that his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins but folks this was the message that was conveyed to this woman Mary to this virgin girl here in the Scriptures that she she will conceive in her in her womb and the and the Son that she should conceive she should call his name Jesus and the angel continues he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and off his kingdom there shall be no end folks this was a message that no other person has ever received nor has any person received since then I can imagine the salutation that she may have concocted in her head that she may get from this angel how overwhelming this would have been for this little virgin girl here in this town of Nazareth the angel tells her that you're going to conceive in your womb and you're going to get birth to a son and you shall call his name Jesus and he says he shall be great folks there is none greater than Jesus

[18:28] Christ it is impossible it is humanly impossible to expound about the greatness of Jesus Christ his genius was great his mercy is great his compassion is great everything about Jesus Christ is great and this angel tells Mary he shall be great hallelujah that he's coming in your womb first Mary he shall be great and he shall be called the Son of the High every one of these people in Nazareth would have known that Mary was a spouse to this man Joseph and this baby that she was going to conceive in her womb would be called the Son of the High Mary would have known that that was not Joseph the carpenter everybody in Nazareth would have known that the highest was not Joseph the carpenter but she says that this baby that will be conceived in her womb will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High why would he be called that because he was and he is the Son of the Most High he is the only begotten Son of the Father he is the first and the last he is the beginning and the end this isn't talking about his eternal sonship here this is talking about his human sonship when Jesus Christ was here on earth yes he was fully God and he was fully man and he was and he was both of those things simultaneously for very good reason the folks this is talking about the the the the the the role that Jesus Christ had here while he was here on this earth the role of a son to his father he done everything that the father wanted him to do his meat was to do the father's will from what we read in the scriptures

[20:22] Jesus Christ treated his his heavenly father the same way that you and I should treat our earthly fathers and our heavenly fathers and he done it without ever sinning he done it without ever complaining he done it without ever fussing about anything that the father would have him to do he is the Son of the Most High he's the Son of the High praise God and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David this is when it would have started making a little bit better sense to Mary the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David folks this was a promise that was made way over in the Old Testament this is part of the Davidic covenant that God made with David in 2 Samuel chapter chapter 7 there was a promise there made that there would be a ruler that would rule from the throne folks it goes back really and truly and technically you can go back even further and that's the Genesis chapter 49 we know that Jesus Christ is the line of the tribe of Judah doing in Genesis chapter 49 there is a promise made there is a prophecy spoken to Jacob's son Judah that the scepter would never depart from his hand hey folks the scepter has departed since then but there is coming a day where the scepter shall not depart from that king's hand there is coming a day where the son of the Most High the son of the absolute highs will rule and he will reign from the throne of David and up his kingdom hallelujah there will be no end that's my Jesus that we are talking about that's Jesus Christ that will come here to rule and to reign forever and those of us which are born again those of us which are in the family of

[22:13] God will rule and reign with him praise God that's a promise straight from the scriptures folks he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and off his kingdom there shall be no end I want you to notice what it says there in verse 32 again the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David free gift gospel mission ain't going to hand over the throne it's not ours to give it ain't no Jew out there or any group of Jews that's going to hand that throne over it's not theirs to give there is no Gentile out there that is going to hand that throne over it is not theirs to give there is no single person or no group of people that is going to give Jesus Christ permission to sit upon that throne the bible makes it clear that the Lord God his heavenly father and my heavenly father the Lord God will give unto him the throne of his father David and that is where he shall rule from forever hallelujah there's a lot of confessing believers that need to get that strength that Jesus don't reign by our permission he doesn't he doesn't reign he doesn't rule and he's not king by our authority he is king by his own authority and by God the father's authority this is exactly how he is king verse 34 then Mary said unto the angel how shall this be seeing I know not a man and there's been much ridicule of the bible of Mary's response here versus Zechariah's response when Zechariah's asked the question when the same angel give him the message that he and

[24:00] Elizabeth would conceive he said how shall I know this he was asking for a sign in other words I'm not going to believe it until I see something until I see something that shows me that this is that this is so Mary's response is not like Zechariah's she says or the bible says then said Mary unto the angel how shall this be seeing I know not a man Mary is a faithful woman here Mary is showing her faith in what the angel has said she is not turned and ran the other way she is not screamed in fear she has done none of these things but she asked a simple question looking for direction from this angel looking hey she he's done told her what is going to happen and Mary would have been familiar with the scriptures with the Old Testament scriptures that blood showed in Isaiah chapter 7 that a virgin would conceive and Isaiah chapter 9 that his name would be wonderful his name would be counselor his name would be the everlasting father and the prince of peace hallelujah Mary would have known these things and now this angel has told her this is whom you're going to give birth to the son of the most high the son of the highest and she asks a simple question how shall this be seeing I know not a man Gabriel already knew that just on a side note it was a virgin birth

[25:28] I want to get that out in the open and make that very plain there's a lot of people out there there's churches there's preachers there's teachers and there's denominations out there that will tell you that it was not a virgin birth that will tell you the Bible speaking of a young girl or a young lady or a young lass or where the case was but that she was not a virgin folks there was a virgin it was predicted that it would be a virgin in the Old Testament and it was shown to be a virgin in the New Testament right it had to be a virgin that conceived that conceived our Savior even David said and sinned did my mother conceive me folks we're all conceived and sinned we're born into sin we're shaping and iniquity according to what I read in the scriptures Mary here was seeking direction she wasn't being a smart alec to Gabriel and she wasn't saying this in doubt of what Gabriel had said she said how shall this be seeing I know not a man meaning

[26:37] I'm a virgin I've never known a man I've never known a man in verse 35 and the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the high shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God again in verse 35 it says the angel answered said and heard the holy ghost shall come upon thee now folks this does not mean as as the Muslims say that it is this does not mean that the Holy Ghost actually impregnated the virgin Mary that is not what it's saying here that's a blasphemous thought and that that does zero honor to the scriptures but what is saying this is the same thing as we find in Genesis 1 and 2 we all know the Genesis account in Genesis 1 and 1 we see that in the beginning God created the earth and the and Genesis the heavens in the earth Genesis 1 2 and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the faith of the face of the deep of the spirit of God moved upon the waters and from that movement came the formation of the earth in fact from that movement as far as we can see come the formation of the entire cosmos the entire universe that we know about but it was the movement of the holy ghost on the waters on the face of the deep that caused that and it is the movement of the holy ghost in the life of this virgin Mary that caused her to conceive hallelujah folks it works the same way with the born again child of God it worked the same way with me when I got saved and if you're here say it worked the same way with you it took a moving of the holy ghost in your life it took a moving of the holy ghost in your heart it took a moving of the holy spirit in your soul in order for you to be redeemed and reconciled to the God that had cast you out it takes a moving of the holy spirit it take a moving of the holy spirit for the virgin Mary here the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the high shall overshadow thee this it's amazing the depth that Gabriel is going to here read this verse again the angel answered and said in there the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the high shall overshadow thee well we read about the highest just a couple of verses ago verse 32 he shall be great he should be called the son of the highest so who is the highest the highest is god the father the high and it's no different here in verse 35 so we got the holy ghost shall come upon thee there's one member of the trinity and the power of the high shall overshadow thee the highest is another member of the trinity therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god in this one verse this this messenger that called Gabriel that is speaking to this little virgin girl in a town called Nazareth he is exposed that what we often call the trinity he is exposed god the father in the word the highest he's exposed god the son and the son of god and he is exposed god the spirit to this woman hallelujah and that that trinity what we commonly call the trinity is still in full force and it cannot be separated it cannot be moved it cannot be shaken and you cannot get one member of the trinity to disagree with another member of the trinity they are always in accord one another god the father will always agree with god the son and god the holy spirit will always agree with god the father god the son will always agree with god the holy spirit it is one perfect plan that they carry out it is one perfect plan that there's been in motion since the dawn of everything that we know there's one perfect plan that one perfect God separated the three separate persons it is one perfect plan that they have come up with and that they are working in our lives and in the lives of those all around us and it was working for this little virgin girl named Mary this little girl that was seeing herself as unimportant as a nobody the Holy Spirit was working on her behalf the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the highest God the Father was working on her behalf that she would conceive God the Son in her womb my goodness folks it had to be this way I said earlier that they had to be a virgin that would conceive Jesus Christ that would conceive in her womb because we are all born into sin every one of us are born into sin it must be a virgin why because the rest of us are tainted with sin from the get-go from the get-go we are tainted with sin he had Jesus Christ had to come the way that he did because that was the only way that the righteousness of Almighty

[31:45] God could be could be supplied unto man supplied unto us because we could not work there we could not work that much righteousness in our lives we couldn't supply enough righteousness to get to God so Jesus Christ came in human form Jesus Christ came in a robe of flesh and was buried of a virgin woman to supply to us the righteousness to their to supply to God the righteousness that man was unable to supply how are you but he had to come as man to supply the sacrifice the perfect sacrifice to God that we couldn't make so he came as a man born of a virgin to supply to us righteousness that we needed to get to God but he also came as a man to supply that perfect sacrifice that was needed that God required we couldn't do it we tried for years the Jews and tried for years think of all those the thousands tens of thousands hundreds of thousands millions truth be known of sacrifices that were made from the time of of came and able from that time all the way up to this point that we're reading about right now think about all those sacrifices and none of them were perfect none of them were perfect Christ had to come he had to be born of a virgin because he had to be perfect and he couldn't have been born any other way verse 36 and behold I cousin Elizabeth she has conceived a she had also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren remember that folks she was called barren that's past tense hallelujah she was called barren but now she's not she's conceived a son and that son will be John the Baptist and John the Baptist being just six months older and being the cousin to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he would be the forerunner for Christ he would be the one that would lead many people to to God the Bible says that in Luke chapter earlier in Luke chapter one and the message that Gabriel is given unto Zacharias it says that he would lead his many of his people to the Lord he would lead many of his people to the

[34:20] Lord their God John the Baptist did this he was the forerunner he's the one that announced the coming he's the one that said hey the Lord is coming he's the first one in Matthew chapter 3 that preached the word repeat ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and Jesus Christ followed up in Matthew chapter 4 preaching the exact same word repeat ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand John the Baptist announced the coming of the Savior hallelujah John the Baptist did this this little girl or I'm sorry this old woman named Elizabeth in the scripture was called baron verse 37 for with God nothing shall be impossible folks that applies to you and I right now for with God nothing shall be impossible but why would Gabriel have felt it necessary to tell Mary the Virgin Mary these things he just told her that she would conceive in her womb and she had just reminded him I know not a man and the words were just spoken that Elizabeth was baron and the words were spoken just before that about what we call the Trinity about God the Father about God the Son and about

[35:40] God the Spirit but the three persons of the Triune Godhead he had mentioned all these things in just a very short amount of time and he tells Mary though he says don't you worry with God all things are possible it is possible for a virgin girl to conceive with God it is possible for a woman that is stricken in age to conceive with God and it is possible that God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit would work on the behalf of one who just believes hallelujah all these things are possible with God all them nothing barred anything is possible with God y'all have heard me say before but praise God it's worth saying again we read about some of the events in Scripture we read about the miracles we read about about how God chose Abraham and out of Abraham he brought Abraham up out of the land of earth and out of Abraham came Isaac and out of Isaac came Jacob and now Jacob came the 12 tribes of Israel and out of the 12 tribes of Israel came a massive nation and they all went down into Egypt and God redeemed them out of Egypt after he heard their cries of the hear the cries of his children of the sons and the daughters of Jacob of the children of

[37:09] Israel he heard them and he redeemed them and we've read the account and heard about the miracle that God parted the Red Sea using his man Moses he parted the Red Sea and they crossed on dry ground to the other side we've heard about the miracles in Scripture we know that Daniel slept with the lions in their den we know about the miracles in the Scripture but praise God the greatest miracle that you will read about in the Scripture is that there was one perfect that came here and gave his life a ransom for many he gave his life for you he gave his life for me he gave his life so that lonely sinners would have a way to God hallelujah that is the greatest miracle that you will read about in Scripture this is a faithful saying Paul said in 1st Timothy in chapter 1 this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners he came to save sinners that's the greatest miracle because we don't deserve it none of us deserving it is all by the grace of God just as Mary received the grace of God and just as Zechariah received a message from an angel purely by the grace of God it is purely by the grace of God that we can be saved hallelujah for with God nothing shall be impossible and that includes that includes any sinner that you think is out there that's too far gone to be saved I was in that boat one time I know a lot of people that had given up on me I know a lot of people said I can go bother I'm just gonna leave it in God's hands and I praise God that they did but folks there is nothing impossible with God the murderer the rapist the dope pen and the drunkard all of these are able to be saved by God the Bible says it is not his will that any chaperone but that hall should come to repentance God is able to save the worst of the worst he is able to save the drunkest of the drunk he's able to save the highest of the high he's able to save the most perverted of the perverted my God is able to save because with God nothing is impossible praise God hallelujah for with God nothing shall be impossible last verse will be done verse 38 and Mary said behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed one more time and Mary said now keep in mind everything we've gone over this morning folks and Mary said behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her this is the proper response to grace grace had been shown the Virgin Mary God could have picked any other woman out there he could have picked a princess in a palace he could have picked anyone that was out there but God looked down on Mary and Mary found favor with God and it was purely and utterly by grace and this is Mary's response to that grace be it done unto me according to thy word this angel was delivering the word of

[40:52] God to Mary and she says be it done unto me let it be everything that you've just said can let the Holy Spirit move upon me and conceiving my womb this one that has promised this one that has been said to be named Jesus and this one that has promised to save his people from their sins this one that is to be great this one that is to be the son of the most high this one that is to sit upon his father David's throne and that he is to rule that from his to rule over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end this is Mary responding in faith to the words of God that the angel Gabriel had delivered unto her she is saying be it unto me according to everything that you just said what good it would do us to have the same attitude as Mary did you consider what she was risking when she when she said these words consider what she was risking she was risking divorce and she technically wasn't even married yet she was betrothed to Joseph but the only way in this time you could break an engagement was by divorce she was risking that not only that she wound up with a baby in her womb and she did she was looking at ridicule from the town folk she was looking at Joseph deserting her which would leave her in a life that was destitute that would mar her name it would mar her personality it would it would mar everything about her where nobody would only thing to do with it those of you that read your Bibles in John chapter 4 who do we read about in John chapter 4 the woman at the well she came to the well at the hottest part of the day because she didn't want any kind of social interaction with anyone else everybody in the town knew about that woman everybody in the town knew her reputation and she didn't want anything to do with them and they didn't want anything to do with her Mary was risking that same thing when she said be it unto me what are you willing to risk for Almighty God when God shows you in His Word when God shows you what He wants you to do where He wants you to go who He wants you to talk to when God shows you these things and God relays these things to you what are you willing to risk are you willing to risk your reputation are you willing to risk your life are you willing to risk losing everything losing friends losing family hey folks if it is for the sake of God and it is for the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is for the glory of the kingdom that Almighty God has promised to come I would encourage you to give it all up to the glory of God the Bible says whether we eat or whether we drink do it all to the glory of God do everything to the glory of God this is how grace is responded to in faith not outside of faith but in faith as Mary's response here be it unto me according unto that word this is the equivalent of

[44:01] Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 16 here am I Lord send me it's the equivalent of Job and Job I believe it's chapter 13 he says though he slay me yet will I trust him speaking of Almighty God this is the equivalent of Queen Esther when Mordecai is telling her hey you're gonna have to go in to a hazardous because our people are about to be slain you're gonna be risking it all she says if I perish I perish this is the equivalent of these things but folks the best example I can give you this is the this is the equivalent of Jesus Christ when he's praying in the garden of Gethsemane he says Lord if there be any other way take this cup away from me let it be some other way nevertheless not my will but I will be done this is the attitude that every born again believer needs to have that we do the will of God that's what Mary was wanting here and Mary didn't live a perfect life don't let anybody tell you that she did she simply gained favor with God just as you not living a perfect life gained favor with God if you're sitting here born again you gain favor with God she said be it unto me according to thou word and the angel departed from her the faithful response to the grace of God if you're here and the Holy Spirit's dealing with you I would encourage you to respond in the same way that Mary did be it unto me according to thou word the word of God teaches that man is a sinner and that

[45:41] God is a mighty and a wonderful and a powerful Savior and that he saves to the uttermost be it unto me according to thou word oh Lord that's the name today's message God bless y'all I appreciate your attention