Westtown Church
Westtown Church
Mercy of Salvation
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Can we truly grasp the magnitude of God's mercy? Join us as we explore Mary's song in Luke 1:46-45. We'll break down the unbreakable – God's promise of love and mercy for believers in Christ which, unlike our promises, is not based on deeds but solely on His sovereign love and mercy. Let us remember together, to rejoice in His steadfast love. Join us, listen, and learn as we stand in awe of the depth of God's mercy.
Understanding God's Mercy and Praising
Speaker 1We've been working through a series on the songs of Christmas that we find in the Bible , and today we'll be looking at Luke 1 , 46-45 , where we find Mary's song , which is known as the Magnificat . It's called that because the Latin word means to magnify . It's basically a song of praise . She is praising God , she's rejoicing in God , and the reason she does so is because of his great mercy , the mercy of his salvation . And mercy , defined generally speaking , is not getting what you deserve . So if your kid does something and they really need some discipline for it , but instead you decide not to discipline them , you might define that as mercy . You're withholding something negative , withholding punishment . But God's mercy as we find it in Scripture is actually different than that In the Old Testament . Mercy is often comes from the Hebrew word chesed . You got to say it with that guttural H , otherwise it's not the same word Chesed , and it means something like loving , kindness or steadfast love . The book of Ruth is a great example where you find that over and over again . In the song we just sang , hark , the Herald Angel Sing Dwight in his devotional this week was pointing out that the phrase mercy mild . It doesn't mean like bland mercy or boring mercy . It means gracious or tender mercy , and that's the way God expresses mercy . It is over the top , excessively gracious . It is lavishing of grace upon us . It's not just withholding punishment , it's also lavishing grace and love upon us , particularly as we find in the mercy of salvation . So we'll talk about that today .
Speaker 1And really I know there's probably two different types of people here . Generally speaking , those of you who already know Jesus would say that he is your savior , that you're living a life of faith in him . I hope that today will be cause for great rejoicing for you , that you will rejoice in him even more this Christmas , knowing his mercy so well . But maybe you're not a believer in Christ , maybe you have never known Jesus as savior and for you Christmas is just sort of a cultural thing . It's just like , yeah , it's when you get together with family and you exchange warm holiday greetings and maybe some arguments about politics or something like that . But maybe that's all Christmas is to you . Or maybe Christmas is a negative thing , maybe it's something where you're reminded of painful experiences , or maybe you just don't believe in God . And I'm so glad you're here and I hope that today , through God's word , you'll come to understand more of the mercy of God and exactly what that means for us .
Speaker 1Because it is such good news , let's start by looking at verses 46 through 48 from Luke , chapter one , and Mary said my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God , my savior , for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant . The first thing we see here is that we praise God from a place of humility , or maybe it's better to say we are best suited to praise God from a state of humility . Mary clearly recognizes that she has a what she calls a humble estate . She is a probably a teenage girl from probably a poor Jewish family . She lives in a nation that has been conquered and conquered and reconquered by multiple other nations over the course of about 500 years , and so she is not free . She is not in a good position . She has nothing going for her . There is nothing advantageous about her class . This is genuinely a very humble circumstance that she finds herself in . The good news is , though , is that she has learned humility from her humble circumstances .
Speaker 1Not everybody can say that Many people in humble circumstances grow bitter , but she has learned humility . I like to remind people what CS Lewis says about humility , because I think it's easily misunderstood . Humility is not thinking less of yourself . It's thinking of yourself less . So it's not thinking , oh , I'm worthless , I'm terrible , I'm horrible . That's not really humility . Humility is just . I don't need to think about myself that much , I'm not self-absorbed , I'm not constantly making everything about me . That's hard for us to do , but that's what humility is .
Speaker 1And you could argue , of course , that this humility for Mary , or for anybody , comes about only because of what Christ has done in changing our hearts to make us more Christ-like . Indeed , she is a person of faith . She calls God her savior . At some point God has looked favorably upon her and noticed her . And oh , by the way , jennifer meant to tell me that last time I was on the stool I was doing lots of weird things with my feet . So if I do that , just wave at me or something , because I know it's distracting and I'm even like distracting myself up here . It's kind of weird . But anyway , where was I so sliding off the stool and I forget where I am ?
Speaker 1Mary is a person of faith and it's not because she is humble and has been rewarded for her humility . That's not why God saved her . That's not why God saves anybody . God does not save based on what we do . He doesn't give us salvation as a reward for our good behavior . Salvation is always a gift , it's always a mercy , and Mary understands that God is . It's not unique that any of us would experience this from Christ . If we are believers in Christ , we all know that salvation comes as a result of God's good pleasure only and not because of what we have done .
Speaker 1But what is unique about Mary ? That God is about to use her in a way that will Will be to come to be known as singular throughout all of history . She's going to be the birth mother of the Lord Jesus , of the Savior . There is no one else in in history that can ever make that claim . It's possibly the greatest honor that God could bestow upon any human being ever , and this is just incredible .
Speaker 1But the question is why Mary ? Why would God choose this lowly Teenage girl of a humble estate and not someone like a Cleopatra or Helen of Troy or or even , you know , like the daughter of the Jewish high priest or something like that ? Why would God not choose a queen ? I think it's because a queen would say of course , I've been chosen for this , I've earned this , I deserve this . In fact , I'd be offended if God chose anybody else , because look at how great I am . Isn't that what a queen would think ? A queen would then go on to write books or tell of stories of how great she is Forgiving birth to this , this Jesus , and how she'll be remembered for all ages for what she had done . That's what a queen would do .
Speaker 1But what does Mary do ? In Verses 48 and 49 , mary says For behold , from now on , all generations will call me blessed , for he who is mighty has done great things for me , and holy is his name . You see , mary , in her humble estate , is Free to give glory to God . She does not need to hog the glory . She's not a glory thief . She is free to give glory to God because she's humble . I Know this will be the first thing you think of To illustrate this , and it is for me as well that this is kind of like why Gandalf shows the Hobbits that you know he chose Bilbo and Frodo .
Speaker 1Why ? Because , if you look at all the different creatures in Middle Earth , they're the only ones who are really truly humble enough to take the ring to Mordor and not be overcome by its power . Everybody else would be completely Self-absorbed , overcome by its power . But not the Hobbits , and that's why he chose them . And in this similar way , god often chooses Humble people to be the vessels through which he works . I mean , the whole Old Testament is full of people like that . The disciples , these are not , you know , influential men , these are not movers and shakers in society . They are fishermen and tax collectors washed up . Nobody's who , nobody would think would ever amount to much success . But that's who God chose to be the apostles of his faith . And Then , if you look at Jesus himself , I mean , how did Jesus come ? He could have come as a king , he could have come as any number of important people , but he came as a poor carpenter in obscure region that we would probably call the backwoods or the boondocks . That's who he chose to become .
Speaker 1God works this way and it's because of what 2nd Corinthians 4 , 7 says . He says but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us . Would you be comfortable Boasting that you're a jar of clay ? Would you be comfortable saying , yeah , I'm , I'm not really much of anything , I'm just kind of a guy or a gal , and I'm pleased that God would use me and and I'm happy to be used by him , no matter what and whatever way he sees fit . Would you be comfortable letting God have all the glory ? A lot of people are not comfortable with that . A lot of people want it for themselves . If we're in a humble place and we know we're in a humble place we are best suited to praise God and give him all the glory .
Mary's Praise and Fear of God
Speaker 1Next thing Mary praises God for is found in verse 50 . It says in his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation . We see that we praise God because his mercy is for future generations . He is merciful not just to us but to our children and their children and their children . And Mary's thinking of all the generations , the millions , the billions of people that are gonna be blessed because she's giving birth to Jesus . I mean this strikes her like kind of in the middle of this poem and she's just like overwhelmed with praise about it , because she realizes the scope of what's about to happen that billions of people will fear God because she's giving birth to the Savior . Now , what does it mean to fear God ? Why would she say that she's not talking about being scared of God . This does not mean to be afraid of God .
Speaker 1When the Bible talks about fearing the Lord , it's about rightly recognizing who he is and being in awe of him . We rightly recognize that he alone is king , that he alone is creator , that he alone is Lord , that he alone is worthy of our worship and that he's infinitely greater than us . And here's the catch we recognize all those things and we love it . We think that's great , that is the best news in the world , that God is all those things and I just get to be his creature and I just get to worship him . Man , that's fearing the Lord . And so that's what Mary is saying is that people like that , people who have redeemed , have been redeemed by Jesus , who have been saved there are billions of people in the future who God is going to bless . Praise the Lord . That's what she says .
Speaker 1And she realizes that maybe her own children are included in this , because she was gonna have other kids she had maybe four or five other kids and she sees that Jesus is the greatest hope for my kids , for my children . And that's a point where I think we can stop and ask what do we find to be the greatest hope for our children . What do you hope for your kids ? I think that the Bible would say that , above all else , we should hope that our kids would be faithful , repentant people who love Jesus , who fear God , who want to please him , who love him , who love their neighbors , who love their church and who would be willing to give their lives for him . That , biblically speaking , that is what we should hope for our kids . But I find that we hope for all sorts of other things for our kids and again I'm gonna say this and I want you to know there's nothing wrong with hoping for these types of things . I'm saying I want us to make sure these are not the hope that we have for our kids .
Speaker 1Is your greatest hope for your kids a college education ? Is it prosperity ? Is it security ? Is it a college athletic scholarship ? Is it any of those types of things ? If it is , and again , all fine things . But if that's what you're putting all your hope eggs in the basket for , or whatever , think about the statement that Jesus makes what good is it for your child to gain a college education but lose their soul ? If you're prioritizing that for your children and you're forgetting to prioritize their faith , you're setting them up for a life that's only about this life . You're really setting them up for failure . You and I , we all need to prioritize their faith , their walk with Jesus . That is more important than any college degree or any level of prosperity . In fact , I would say that if your children and my children have a robust faith in Jesus Christ , where they're living a life of repentance and faith and they have nothing else , then they have everything they need . If only we really believed that . I think that is our greatest hope for us and for our kids . My encouragement is just that we would all pray that that's what our children will want and that that's what they'll want for their children , and that that's what they'll want for their children , because we know this life is just a vapor . Ultimately , this life is about learning to fear the Lord so that we might spend eternity with Him in the next life .
Speaker 1Well , the next thing Mary praises God for is kind of strange . In verses 51 through 53 , she says he has shown strength with His arm . He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts . He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate . He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty . So we praise God when we understand what we deserve instead of His mercy . This is again an odd thing that why would Mary praise God for this ? She's praising God , it seems like , for withholding mercy and for giving the proud of heart what they deserve . I mean , that seems strange that she would think about that . She might have Proverbs 3.34 on her mind , which says Toward the scorners he is scornful , but to the humble he gives favor . And this is where James and Peter get their take on this verse , which is that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble . So who are the proud in the thoughts of their hearts ? That's what Mary says here .
Speaker 1I would say this is anybody who rejects God , anybody who would choose sin or sinful pride over God , anybody who thinks I am , or I ought to be , in God's place , that I am the captain of my own soul , I'm the Lord of my life . I should get to determine what I'm going to do with my life . I'm my own authority , all that type of stuff that is all being proud in the thoughts of our hearts . I had a baseball coach in high school and I remember very clearly one of these times after practices , when he's given his spiel , and he was talking about religion for some reason , and he said you know , a lot of you believe in God , a lot of you go to church or you go to temple . Then he pointed at its chest and he said this is my temple and I wanted to be like coach . I don't think that's right , man , but I also wanted to play so didn't say anything . I was a dumb teenager . I wish I had said something . I mean to say that is to be proud in the thoughts of your heart .
Speaker 1In the Bible , pharaoh is a great example of this , in Exodus 5,2, . Look at what he says . He says who is the Lord , that I should obey his voice and let Israel go . I do not know the Lord and , moreover , I will not let Israel go . Oh , my goodness , what a statement . I mean he's basically saying God is a joke man , like . Who is he ? He's nothing . I'm king . He's nothing . And God would go on to show Pharaoh that no , in fact , he is the king .
Speaker 1But this is what pride does . Pride makes us think that we're the somebody and that God's the nobody . And you might not think that exact thought . You might not think yeah , I'm really something and God's nothing . But I'm just saying , when we sin , when we reject God , that's what we're communicating , is that's how we think . So and we have to understand too . This is all of us , every person , whether you're a Christian or not , every person has had these thoughts about God . We've all rejected him in our sin . We've all had thoughts where you know , yeah , sure , I think God probably do a better job than God would with my life . We all have these thoughts , and so what I'm about to say next applies to every single one of us . It's just a question of have we experienced the mercy of God or not ?
Speaker 1Mary praises God because he gives proud people the due penalty for their sin . What is that due penalty ? Let's look at some verses from Romans . Romans 2 , 5 , and 8 says but because of your hard and impenitent heart , you are storing up wrath for yourself . On the day of wrath , when God's righteous judgment will be revealed . But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness , there will be wrath and fury . And Romans 6 , 23 also says that the wages of sin is death . In other words , we deserve death for our sin . Who is this for Well . Romans 3 , 23 says All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God .
Speaker 1The Bible is saying that all humans are sinners . The Bible teaches that . The Bible teaches this all throughout , and common sense teaches this . If you were around me or any other FSU fan last Sunday afternoon and you were able to read our inner thoughts , you would know how totally depraved we are . And if you're around I don't know if you're around like a toddler , I mean , goodness gracious , you see total depravity right there . All you have to do is spend any time with any person , any human being , and you see it . We are sinners . Our hearts , just like , create sin . It's what we do , and God is saying through His Word that the just Punishment , what we deserve for our sin , is wrath and it is hell .
Speaker 1I don't like talking about that . I don't feel like very many people do . It's not something that we want to hear . In fact , a lot of people will just say I can't believe in a God who would send people to hell , or even they would say I don't even believe there is a hell . And look , I understand that . I don't think anybody likes this idea at all . But we need to believe what the Bible teaches us to believe , not what we pick and choose .
Speaker 1And the Bible says that God is a God of justice . Do you believe that God should be just ? Do you believe that he is just ? If he doesn't send people to hell for their sin , then he's not just . And if you think well , I don't need Him to be just . Well , listen , what would you do with a human judge who tried a case for murder or pedophilia and said to that murderer or that pedophile oh , you're free to go , no big deal , whatever , it's fine , just sweep into the rug .
Speaker 1Well , you would be outraged , rightly so . Because why ? Because we are just people . We have a sense of justice , and I would make the argument that we only have a sense of justice because of God , because it starts with God . You would have a hard time , I think , explaining why we have a sense of justice without eventually getting back to God , and that's because God is a just God . Now you might say well , okay , he's a just God .
Speaker 1Fine , we deserve punishment for our sin . Fine , why does it have to be hell ? Why does it have to be eternal ? Doesn't that seem like that's ? You know , the punishment doesn't fit the crime . Okay , I understand that too . But do we really know what sin is ? Do we really understand the gravity of it ? I mean , sin is treason . We have committed trillions of treasons against the God of the universe and we don't . We kind of generally just don't think it's that big of a deal , but to God it is treason . We need to talk about this stuff . We need to talk about what the Bible says about sin and about the punishment we deserve for sin , because the Bible wants to warn us , the Bible wants us to understand that there is no way out of this apart from repenting and trusting Christ for our salvation , that he is the only way to heaven . But we also need to talk about this because when you experience that mercy , when you experience the mercy of God's salvation , now we really got a full understanding of how great God is , of how wonderful His mercy is .
Speaker 1This is what Paul's doing in Ephesians 2 . He starts off in Ephesians 2 by saying one of the most negative things you could ever hear in the scriptures . He says you're dead . You're not just bad , you're dead in your sin . And he goes forward and he talks about why that is and then he says but God being rich in mercy , because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses , made us alive together with Christ . By grace , you have been saved .
Speaker 1We have been given a gift that is incomprehensible . Is that even a word ? Incomparable ? I don't know . I'm trying to . I'm mashing words together . This gift is incredible because the gift giver is incredible . He has wiped away our sin . Now , wait a minute .
Speaker 1You say I thought he was a God of justice . How could he still be just if he gives us this gift of salvation ? That's not just okay . Well , this is . This is why we have the cross . This is why Jesus was on the cross .
Speaker 1When he was on the cross , the wrath of God for the sin of every human being who had gone before Jesus , from Adam up until Jesus' time , and every human being since Jesus and every human being who's yet to be born , all of those who are the people of God . The wrath that was supposed to be poured out on those people for their sin , all of it was poured out on Jesus on the cross . Every ounce of it I cannot imagine , but that's how God gets justice for the sin . That is , for my sin , for your sin . That's the gospel that Jesus took the wrath of God upon Himself , absorbed it . He drank the cup of God's wrath . Instead of getting that , we get His perfect righteousness . We are right with God . We have right standing before God , the Father .
Speaker 1There's no one who can accuse us of being outside of the love of God , because we have the love of Christ If we know the depths of our sin and the just punishment we deserve for our sin . I'm not saying that we need to sit and dwell on that every day . It's some sort of a downer . I'm just saying to understand where we are and the blessedness of what we've been given , we really need to understand where we could be . That's what Mary is praising God for here . She's saying praise you , my Lord , my Savior , for not just for withholding punishment from me , but giving me this precious gift of salvation . What an amazing thing he has done . What amazing mercy and loving kindness God has shown . And the last thing we'll talk about is from verses 54 and 55 . It says he has helped his servant Israel , in remembrance of his mercy , as he spoke to our fathers , to Abraham and to his offspring forever . So we praise God because his mercy is also based on his promise keeping .
God's Promises and Faithfulness
Speaker 1This happens a lot in our house , where Jennifer or one of the kids will say that I said something , that I was going to do something , and I'm like , huh , I don't remember that . I'm not lying , I legitimately do not remember . Most of the time it's like man , to the point where I'm just like , okay , well , if you say I said it , then I probably said it . But they do have to . They bring out the progressive instant replay on me , like , oh , let's go back and look , yeah , always works in their favor somehow . Look , you know , god is not like that . Praise the Lord . God has got a perfect memory . God remembers everything he says and he does everything he says he's going to do and he always keeps his promises and that's such good news for us . Mary here praises God for the promises he kept to Abraham . So I've got a few of those listed out here .
Speaker 1Genesis 12 , I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great , so that you will be a blessing . He's going to give him land . He's going to make him into a great nation . He's going to be a blessing to all the earth . Genesis 15 , 5 , look towards heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them . And then he said to him so shall your offspring be . Abraham , who previously had no children , is going to have a child , and then he's going to have descendants that he can't even number . There'll be so many Genesis 17 , 7 , and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations , for an everlasting covenant To be God to you and to your offspring after you . So not only is Abraham going to have all these kids , but God is going to be their God , he's going to be their people .
Speaker 1This is his promise , this is his covenant and this is part of an overall promise that we call the covenant of grace , where God has made this promise to all his people that , no matter what he's going to redeem us , he's going to save us , he's going to bring us all the way home , to the promised land , to the new heavens and new earth . And God , not only does God do this because he is rich in mercy and kindness that's probably the main reason why he does this , it's just who he is but he also does it because he's promised to do it and he just he makes . He makes these lavish promises and he always keeps them . He never goes back on his word . He always does what he says he's going to do , which means we can trust him .
Speaker 1Now , if we dig a little deeper into this , we got to understand that God knew what kind of people he was making these promises to right . He knew that Abraham , after this , was going to go sleep with his wife's handmaid thinking , oh yeah , that's the way God wants me to have him , that's the way God wants me to have a child . And he knew that Abraham was going to go around telling people that no , my wife's not really my wife , she's my sister . Like that's the kind of dude . He was right . I mean , who does that ? But God made this promise to him knowing that . And God made this promise to Israel knowing that they were going to spend a thousand years rejecting him , forsaking him , chasing after idols and and , overall , just kind of not caring about him . He made this promise to Israel knowing that God makes this promise to us , knowing that we are sinners and knowing that we have already sinned and that we're going to sin again today and that tomorrow we're going to sin again and we're going to royally mess things up at some point . And , yes , god still makes this promise to us .
The Assurance of Salvation in Christ
Speaker 1What I'm trying to say is you can't screw this up If you're a believer in Christ . I , if I'm a believer in Christ , I can't screw this up , no matter how hard I might try . And that is such good news , because I stand before you today as a royal screw up . Can I get an amen ? Okay , god's promises are true for me and for you If you're a believer in Jesus Christ , no matter how big your sin is , because Jesus is the friend of sinners . He's not the friend of perfect people .
Speaker 1I feel bad for the people that think they are perfect , because they're missing out on the best news there is that should be of supreme comfort to us , that God's loving kindness is not based on just as much as it's not going to be taken away by our sin . It's also equally true that it's not based on our good deeds . It's not based on our church attendance . It's not based on whether or not we're baptized . It's not based on anything we've done . It is completely , 100% , based on his choice , his mercy , his sovereign love for us and his promise keeping , which is unbreakable . Let's praise him . I hope that Christmas is a time of praise for all of us for what he has done for us , for his loving kindness , for his tender mercy . Let's stand with Mary and praise him all the more and rejoice in him this Christmas . Let's pray .