Sermons

Introduction

So, I want you to take your Bible and turn with me to Luke chapter 1. For those of you visiting, we're preaching through the book of Luke – this is going to take a while – and we are in chapter 1, and we're going to be in verse 67 today. And we're going to begin looking at Zacharias' prophecy, and we will only look at the first part of it, we'll finish it next Lord's Day. And then the Sunday before Christmas, we will actually be in Luke 2 – perfect timing for the birth of Christ. So I want to begin by reading the verses that we're going to look at, it'll be 67-71. The title of this message is "The God Who Saves. The God Who Saves." And I think it'll be obvious to you. 

So, beginning in verse 67, the word of God reads, "And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant – as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old – salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us." This is the reading of God's word. It'll be our focus today as we meet together as the people of God. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. 

[Prayer] Father, we are so grateful for what You are doing in our lives. You're at work within us both to will and to work for Your good pleasure. You are sanctifying us and growing us in the grace and knowledge of Christ, and we are so thankful for Your work within us and the wisdom, as You carry out the affairs of our lives. We're grateful for Your goodness that You have led our path to be here in this church, and even for this Lord's Day, and You have prepared for our good. So I pray that in this hour as we look into Your word, that it will not return to You void, that it will accomplish all Your good pleasure among us and in us. 

So, bless everyone who is under the sound of my voice. I pray that the seed of the word will be sown into fertile soil and that it will bear much fruit. We ask now that You give us eyes to see, ears to hear. Give me a mind and a mouth to preach, in Christ's name. Amen. [End] 

In these verses, we see the beginning of the prophecy by Zacharias of the coming salvation, the coming Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is to come into the world. The keyword in these verses that I have read, and it continues throughout the rest of this prophecy, is the word "salvation." You'll see it once in verse 69, and once in verse 71, and next week we'll see it in verse 77, "salvation." This is all about salvation. 

And there are other keywords that are mentioned here that accompany salvation. You'll note the word "redemption" in verse 68, and the word "mercy" in verse 72, and the words "holiness" and "righteousness" in 75, and the word "forgiveness" in verse 77, and "tender mercy" in 78. I mean, this is the dominant thrust and the dominant theme that is woven through the tapestry of these verses, and it tells us that God is a saving God, that God is a God who saves. And as we talk about salvation today, it's a word that's often used, but I want to make certain that we understand what it means. 

The word "salvation" means deliverance. It means to be rescued. It means to provide an escape. And with salvation, to fully understand the fullness of it, there's a negative and a positive element, the heads and tails of the same coin. There is a separation from the curse of the law. There is a salvation from the wages of our sin, which is death. There is a salvation from eternal punishment and eternal destruction, and there's not a person in this room who does not need to be saved from the misery and the condemnation of our sins. 

But there's also a positive element to salvation as well, because we are saved unto the loving arms of God. We are saved unto the forgiveness of our sins. We are saved unto finding a right standing before God and being fully accepted in the beloved. And so to understand salvation, we have to understand both of these elements, and both of these are found in these verses. 

For example, in verse 71 it says, "salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us." There has to be this negative element of salvation by which we are delivered out of great danger and great destruction. But we are also "saved unto the forgiveness of sins," verse 77, "and saved unto redemption," verse 68, and all this "by God's wonderful, glorious mercy," verse 72. So I want us to have this comprehensive understanding of salvation and what it means for you to be saved. That's what we'll be looking at today, the God who saves. But I need to first set the scene here. 

John the Baptist has just been born eight days earlier. He's been brought to be circumcised by Zacharias, this man, and his wife Elizabeth. And Zacharias has been struck deaf, and he's been struck mute by God. It was a sign to him that the child would be born. And so now as he comes to present the child, everyone assumes the child will be named Zacharias. And Elizabeth says, "No, his name is John," because the angel has already named the child John, and Zacharias agrees. And in that moment, he has restored to him speech. He suddenly now is able to speak again. And what comes out of his mouth is, number one, what we looked at last time, "His name is John." But now, second, is this. And what immediately comes forth from Zacharias' mouth is praise to God for the salvation that is coming into the world. 

This really serves as, I believe, an example for each one of us, that there needs to be continually an anthem of praise to God that is coming from our lips. We should be known by others as those who are constantly just magnifying the name of God in our conversation, in our witness, and in the way we interface with one another. So I want us to look at these verses. They are so rich in doctrinal truth, so rich in theology, that this will, I believe, greatly add to our spiritual lives. 

The Proclamation Begun

So, there's three things that I want you to see as we look at verses 67 to 71, and the first heading is, "The Proclamation Begun." That's in verse 67. Verse 67 really sets up what he will say. But there's some important truths in verse 67 that I want us to see. And the verse begins, "And his father Zacharias." Just to remind you, Zacharias was a priest who served in the temple, and it was to him that the angel Gabriel appeared. "And so his father (referring to John's father) Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit." 

Now, we need to stop right here and we need to understand, "What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?" To be filled with the Spirit means to be taken possession of by the Spirit. It means to be controlled by the Spirit. It means to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. And I want to give you an illustration. 

The idea of being filled with the Spirit is not an empty glass and water is poured in it to fill it up. The Holy Spirit is already with Zacharias. The image is, actually what you should have in your mind, is of a hand going into a glove, where the hand now fills the glove and controls the glove and gives power to the glove. If the hand was not in the glove, the glove would just lay there flat. The glove would not be able to do anything: it couldn't pick anything up, it couldn't perform any function, it would just lay there empty. But when the hand is in the glove, it enables the glove to do everything that it needs to do. 

That's the picture here of being filled with the Spirit. The moment you are converted to Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you. God invades your life and He comes to live inside of your life by the Holy Spirit. You can't see the Holy Spirit, but you certainly know that He's at work in your life. And the Holy Spirit, as He is in you, He must maintain the control of your life. And at any moment in your Christian life, you are either walking according to the Spirit or walking according to the flesh, and Galatians 6:15 makes that very clear. And so that is why it is so necessary that our lives be continually yielded to the lordship of Jesus Christ, that we be continually confessing our sins, that we be continually walking in holiness, that we be continually being filled with the word of God, that the Scripture would richly dwell within us. And as that takes place, the Holy Spirit dominates our lives from the inside out. 

It's a glorious truth. And that is what is taking place with Zacharias. The word of God certainly indwells him. He will be quoting Scripture as he goes through this prophecy. And his life is yielded to the Lord. And so the Holy Spirit is governing him and guiding him, just like you need the Holy Spirit to govern and guide you. It's been well said that the Christian life is not hard, it's impossible. It's impossible to be lived in our own strength. That is why every moment of every day we need the internal ministry of the Spirit of God. 

I also want to draw to your attention here, as we see Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in his life. The Holy Spirit is actively involved in his life. And sometimes I think that we have the idea that the Holy Spirit did not come into the world until the day of Pentecost, or that the Holy Spirit did not begin His work until what we would call the church era beginning in the book of Acts. And nothing could be further from the truth. No one could live their spiritual life before the Lord in a way that honors God without the Holy Spirit. 

And so here, even before the cross – and Zacharias was born in what we would call the Old Testament era, and he would have been converted in what we would call the Old Testament era – he has the Holy Spirit. And so there is this continuity from the Old Testament to the New Testament of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, there's just a greater emphasis upon it in the New Testament. But Zacharias could not have performed his priestly functions without the Holy Spirit, any more than you and I could live our Christian lives without the Holy Spirit. So this is very much worth our consideration. You need the Holy Spirit to be at work in your life to live the Christian life in a way that honors and glorifies God. 

Now, what is the number one evidence of being filled with the Spirit? What would you say? Well, a case can be made for what we see here. I don't know how to rank the evidences of the Holy Spirit at work, but we see one that's very, very prominent in Scripture, and it is, "You begin to speak that which God desires, and it glorifies God." So please note, "He was filled with the Spirit, and" – it couples this together – "prophesied, saying." As he opens his mouth, he now speaks what glorifies God. 

There's a connection here. There's a cause and effect. The cause is you're filled with the Spirit, the effect is you speak that which glorifies God. The root is you are filled with the Spirit, the fruit is you say that which is pleasing to God. So one mark of spiritual maturity is you know how to control your tongue, you know how to control your mouth, and what is the key for that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life. "And so he prophesied, (which means to speak forth God's message) saying." And so I just want to drill down for just a moment on this because this is so practical for your Christian life and for my Christian life to be filled with the Spirit and to speak words that glorify God. 

When you look at the book of Acts, where the emphasis really begins to fall strongly on the Holy Spirit, we read in Acts 1:8, a text you're very familiar with, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses." A witness is someone who speaks what they have seen and heard. So it is the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled them to speak and to bear witness and to testify concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Now, there are a series of verses in the book of Acts that talk about being filled with the Spirit, and I want to walk through some of these. As I look at them, I only have four in my notes where someone is filled with the Spirit, there is an inseparable connection with their mouth, an inseparable connection with the words that they speak. 

So, for example, in Acts 4:8, "Peter, filled with the Spirit, said to them," – and here's what he said – 'There's salvation in no other name, for there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'" What propelled him to say this? He said this to the Sanhedrin. He wasn't preaching to the choir, he wasn't saying this in a Sunday School class, he was saying this to those who were the leaders of Israel who were opposed to him. It was the Spirit of God who was leading his words. 

In Acts 4:31, listen to this verse: "They were filled with the Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness." Did you hear that? Boldness, because they were filled with the Holy Spirit. I think sometimes we're so timid in talking to other people about Christ, it's because we're not dependent upon the Holy Spirit. When we're filled with the Spirit, we will speak with boldness, we cannot hold it back. 

In Acts 7:55, when Stephen was preaching to the Sanhedrin right before they stoned him to death, we read, "Being full of the Spirit," – verse 56 – "he said." This inseparable connection between being filled with the Spirit and speaking the truth and the gospel. And then in Acts 13:9, on Paul's first missionary journey, we read, "Paul, filled with the Spirit," – verse 10 – "said." 

So, I'm not making a mountain out of a molehill here. This is something that is critically important, practical, relevant for your Christian life, for my Christian life, that what we see with Zacharias must be true in our spiritual lives. How easy it is for us to be walking in the flesh, and the words that come out of our mouth are not edifying, are not helpful, can be cutting. But when we're filled with the Spirit, we build people up, and we speak Scripture, and we witness to other people, and the key is the Holy Spirit. 

Now I've got one more verse – and my notetakers, you're going to want to write this one down – Ephesians 5:18. I mean, we know this verse. Paul writes, "Be filled with the Spirit." You need to know that's in the imperative mood, which means it's a command. You're either filled with the Spirit, or you're disobedient to God. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. It's in the present tense, which means every moment of every day we are to be filled with the Spirit. Someone has transliterated it this way: "Be ye being filled with the Spirit." And it's also passive, meaning the Spirit must act upon us. We must yield our lives to Him, and He must then act upon us to embolden us. 

Now, I just read Ephesians 5:18, "Be filled with the Spirit." Verse 19, first mark of being filled with the Spirit, number one on the list right here, "speaking to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." That's the first evidence that when you open your mouth there is praise to God that comes forth. And then in verse 20 it reads, "always giving thanks for all things." So that's the mark of being filled with the Spirit. 

So, I just need to ask you a very personal question right now. Right now, this moment, as you sit in this seat in this worship service, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Are you obedient to this charge in Scripture, "Be filled with the Spirit"? You say, "How?" Die to self, confess all sin, be saturated with Scripture, walk in obedience to the word, and there will be the dominance of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. 

I was reading about Charles Haddon Spurgeon yesterday – this just flashes into my mind. I'm going to New York City next week on Tuesday and to preach in a conference there, and I was reading about Spurgeon because they've asked me to speak on Spurgeon and some other things. And Spurgeon worked hard in the ministry. He would preach 10 to 12 times a week. He pastored the largest Protestant church in the world. The demands upon him were extraordinary. There's more words in print by Charles Haddon Spurgeon than any Christian who's ever lived in any century. 

He died at age 57. He did the work of 30 men. And one of his deacons came to him and just said, "Pastor, you're working too hard. Look at all that you're doing." And Spurgeon said, "You don't understand. There are two of us. It's not just me, it's God in me at work, and God at work in you as well. By yourself, you're not going to be able to accomplish much. But in the supernatural power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, you're able to do exceeding, abundantly, beyond what we would ask or think." I know there's some moms here today who need to be filled with the Spirit. I know that there are some businessmen here who need to be filled with the Spirit. Being pulled and stretched in every direction, how are you going to do it? By the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The Adoration Raised

So let's continue. That's "The Proclamation Begun." We come to verse 68 and I want you to see "The Adoration Raised," the adoration raised, because in verse 68 the first thing out of his mouth, notice what it is: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel." I mean, that's what is in his heart, and that's what comes out of his mouth. 

The word "blessed be" could be loosely translated "praise be." It's an interesting word. It actually comes into the English language as "eulogy," a eulogy. That's a compound word: eu means good, and logos means a word. So a eulogy, you put those two together, it's a good word. You say a good word about someone at a funeral. Well here, it's a good word about God. That's even better. It's a great word about a great God. So he, "Blessed be the Lord." 

Let me just remind you what "Lord" means. Lord means the Sovereign One. It means the Master and Ruler of the universe – and every square inch in the universe, all under the control of the Lord. And then he says, "the God of Israel." When he says, "the God of Israel," he's being very specific here. This isn't just a general statement about the man upstairs or some disrespectful, blasphemous statement about God. No, this distinguishes the God of Israel. This is the God of the Bible. This is the one true living God. This is not the pagan gods of Egypt. This isn't the mythological gods of the Greek culture. This isn't the gods of Babylonia or Assyria. Those are no gods at all! They do not even exist. 

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord your God is one God!" Deuteronomy 6:4, the great Shema. No, this is the one true God that he praises: "You are the God who is, the God who is enthroned, the God who is over the whole universe, the God who is the God of providence," and he offers praise for this God. He will tell us in a moment why. But now his focus is on who. 

And let's be clear, Zacharias has every reason to praise God. We learned earlier in this chapter that he has been made righteous in the sight of God, and that he is walking on paths of righteousness. He's married to a woman who has been made righteous and who is living the same God-honoring life. And now as he comes to the end of his life when it seems he's of too old of an age to bear a son or to produce a son, he now has a son, but not just any son. His son will be the forerunner of the Messiah and prepare the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. No, Zacharias has every reason for there to be praise to just be dripping from his lips. 

And I want to say the same is true for your life. If you're a Christian, if you're a believer, you have 10,000 reasons to praise God. You may only be aware of 10 of them, 15 of them, 20 of them, 50 of them. You have 10,000 reasons to praise God. And your song of praise should be that of David in Psalm 103:1, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits." That needs to be your chorus this morning. This needs to be my anthem this morning. 

Even if you've come here today and there's great difficulty in your life, which may well be the case, you may have come dragging in, you may be discouraged and downcast. And you know what? You may have some good reasons to be down and discouraged. But I want you to know; nevertheless, you have every reason to praise God this morning. And when you put them on the scales, the reasons to praise God so far outweigh whatever would be weighing you down that you should just be constantly praising God. You should be known by your friends, you should be known by your work associates, you should be known by your neighbors, you should be known by your extended family members as someone who has just constantly praising God and giving Him the glory. 

The Explanation Given

Now, in the middle of verse 68 we come to the third main heading, and this is where we really get into the meat of this passage. I want to call it "The Explanation Given." He will now give the reasons why he is so full of praise for God. And this is very important because praise always has its reasons. Praise is never mindless. Praise never occurs in an intellectual vacuum where you just need to turn the music up a little bit more. No, praise never occurs where there is theological emptiness. 

Let me put it to you this way. Strong theology produces strong doxology, and the higher your understanding of who God is and what God is about, it just pulls you up and gives you all the more reason to praise God. The reason I say this, I want you to see the first word that starts the second line in verse 68. Do you see it, "For"? That word always introduces is an explanation for what was just said. 

When you read the apostle Paul, for example, in the book of Romans, it almost seems like every other verse in Romans starts with the word "for." He makes a statement, and then explains why. He backs it up. And so what we have now with Zacharias is he gives reasons to God why he is praising God. And so you and I need this kind of substance in our lives, this kind of truth in our lives. It will propel us to worship God more. 

So notice what he says in verse 68, the second line, "for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people." "He" refers to God the Father. "And He has visited us, He has drawn near to us, and there is a sense in which He is now here in the Holy Spirit and in the person of Christ who has now been conceived in the womb of Mary. God has come to directly intervene in our lives. He is not just distant upon a throne at the pinnacle of the created order of above all that He has made; no, God has invaded history and time and space, and God has entered into the human race. As right now, the Lord Jesus Christ is developing in the womb of Mary. God has visited us. He's come onsite. He's come to Ground Zero. We couldn't go up to Him, but He's come down to us. So He has visited us and accomplished." He hasn't just shown up, He has come and worked. He's done an extraordinary work. He has accomplished something. He doesn't just start it and then leave it there. No, what He starts, He completes, and He accomplishes what? Redemption. 

Now that's one of the most important words in the entire Bible. This is one of the most important words in the entire New Testament, and it is critically important that we understand what the word "redemption" means. It means the payment of a ransom to secure the release of a prisoner, someone held hostage, someone held captive, someone who is imprisoned or enslaved. There must be the payment to secure the release of the one who is in bondage. The word speaks of liberation as the result of a payment that is made. And you'll notice that the redemption is not for the whole world, it is for His people, it is for the elect of God. It is a particular redemption. It will be a definite salvation for a definite group of people, those who are the elect of God. 

Now, I want to do something. I did it at the eight o'clock service, I didn't know I would do it at this service, but I'm going to do it at this service, okay? So you've got to hang with me, all right. We've never done this before. 

I want to give you four Greek words that are used in the New Testament that spell out redemption. I want to dig down a little bit with you. Now, just so that you'll know this, the New Testament was not written in English, it was written in Greek, and there are specific reasons why it was written in Greek, but I can't go down that rabbit trail. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. There are a few chapters in Daniel that are written in Aramaic. But the New Testament is written in Greek. 

Now, when we read our English Bible, we just see the same word used over and over: redeemed, redemption. But behind that in the original language there are different words that are being used, and for the reason that each of these different words has a different nuance, a different emphasis that brings out the richness of redemption, that brings out the robust nature, the multifaceted nature of redemption that you can't necessarily see it in English. But when you see it in the original language with which Luke wrote this, you go, "Whoa, I thought I was opening a closet door, and I open the closet door and it's AT&T Stadium that's in there." For those of you non-sports people, that's where the Dallas Cowboys will play tonight against the Philadelphia Eagles. But anyway... 

So, here are these four words, and they're going to be put up on the screen. And I just want to talk us through this, okay? The first word is agorazó and it means to go into the marketplace and to buy something so that it becomes your possession. The Greek word agorá means the marketplace, and agorazó puts it in a slightly different verb form and it means to go into a marketplace and to make a payment to buy something so that it becomes your possession. And these I've given you. I have two verses here in which this word is used in your New Testament. 

In 1 Corinthians 6:20, we read, "You have been bought with a price." And, oh what a price it was. It cost the Son of God His life and His shed blood. In Revelation 5:9 we read, "You (referring to Christ) were slain, (here's the word) purchased, agorazó, purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation." So this is where we start talking about redemption. By the way, these are all verbs. "Redemption" is a noun, so we're having to shift this from a noun to a verb. 

The second word is basically the same word, it's exagorazó where there's a prefix put at the beginning of the word, ex, and that carries the idea of out of, out of. And so the idea is that someone goes into a marketplace and makes a payment and purchases an object, and then takes that object out of the marketplace. In other words, it's possible that you could buy something but you just leave it in the store, leave it right there. Exagorazó means that you go in, you purchase it, and you purchase it out of and take it with you to be your possession, to live in your house, in essence, to be in your house. 

And that's the word that is used in Galatians 3:13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law." What is the curse of the law? The curse of the law is death, not just physical death. Even we as Christians will die a physical death. It refers to eternal death, the second death. It refers to eternal damnation, that Christ has redeemed us from that. He's taken us out of the world, and he's taken us out of the slave market of sin, and He's taken us out of the grip of the devil, and He's taken us out and put us into His kingdom. 

The other verse is Galatians 4:5 in which "Christ has come to redeem those who were under the Law." And by the way, this is in the New Testament. It's not just the law in the Old Testament. The law is still in effect, the moral law of God. And we were once under the law and we could not meet the standard of the law, and the punishment of the law, the curse of the law is eternal death. But Christ has now redeemed us out from under the law and put us in His kingdom. "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," Romans 8:1. 

Now, the third word, peripoieó, means to purchase an object. And when you take that object, that object is now secure with you. No one can take it from the one who has bought it, it's his legal and lawful possession. What has been bought cannot be lost. What has been bought cannot revert back to its former imprisonment or slavery. And we see this word in Acts 20:28. It's a glorious verse, by the way. It speaks of, "the church of God which He (Christ)" – here it is – "purchased, peripoieó, purchased with His own blood." 

Now, there's a fourth and final word that you need to see that completes the richness of this, and it's the word lutroó, which at the heart luó – it's the first word you learn in seminary to learn how to conjugate a verb and that kind of thing. It just means to release something. It's bound up, contained, and it's now released. Lutroó comes out of this same family of words and it means to release a slave or a prisoner upon the payment of a ransom. And so you're now set free. And there's some overlap between each of these words, yet each of these words carries it a little bit further than the other words. 

And in Titus 2:14, we read, "Christ gave Himself for us" – here it is – "to lutroó, to redeem us from every lawless deed." Every sin you and I would ever commit in the past, in the present, and in the future, Christ's sacrifice at the cross was so perfect that He has released us by redeeming us from every lawless deed. If that doesn't put praise in your mouth, I don't think anything will. 

And then 1 Peter 1:18 is probably the best of all these verses. Peter writes, "You were not redeemed, lutroó, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold." You didn't buy your way into the kingdom of God. You didn't bribe the jailer to let you out of this imprisonment to sin. Verse 19, "but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." That was the payment that was made for your sins. 

The word "precious," precious blood means valuable blood, costly blood, blood of inestimable value. "Unblemished" means faultless, and "spotless" means unstained. It was the perfect atonement for your sins. It redeemed you. It bought you. And so now you're not your own, you're a purchased possession of Christ. Your life is no longer your life, you belong to Christ. He bought you. He paid the price. And so every day when we wake up and we start the day reporting for duty, "Speak, Your servant listens." We are His possession. 

Now, I just want to make this clear, and so I just want to pull all this together for you. The captives are you and me, every sinner who ever lived. The chains were our slavery to sin, and being held by the devil and the curse of the law. The Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has visited us and has accomplished this redemption. The payment, there's only one payment that could have secured this release and that is His precious blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, Hebrews 9, it's like verse 27 or 28. 

No, it required the death of Christ and the shedding of His blood to free you and me. Not even His blood when He was circumcised would atone for our salvation, and not even the blood that He sweat in the garden of Gethsemane. It had to be as He was hanging on that cross, and the Father transferred our sins to Him, and He was dying in our place, and He shed His blood upon that cross. He made the only atonement for our sin, and He made the only payment. 

Fifth, the recipient. To whom was the price paid? Well, it's not to the devil, it's to God the Father. And there upon the cross there was a real transaction that took place. It was invisible, it was in audible. We couldn't see it, we couldn't hear it. But there upon the cross as Christ shed His blood, there was a transaction that took place, as the price was paid to the Father, and the Father granted salvation on the basis of this death. 

And then, sixth, the requirement, because not everyone's redeemed. What's the requirement? It's faith alone in Christ alone. And then, seventh, the result. "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed." 

This really gets at the heart of the gospel. Justification is at the heart of the gospel. Redemption is at the heart of the gospel. Propitiation is at the heart of the gospel. Reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel. Expiation is at the heart of the gospel. And each one of those biblical words are loaded, are treasure houses of truth concerning our salvation with God. But here, redemption, this is a big deal. Someone had to pay the price to free us to come to God, and it was Christ.  

And so now he talks about Christ in verse 69, "and has raised up (and God has raised up) a horn of salvation for us." This horn is Jesus Christ. It's not John the Baptist, it's Jesus Christ. And God has raised Him up. He's caused him to appear on the stage of human history in the fullness of time, born of a virgin. God has raised up a horn of salvation, a horn. This is a figure of speech. This is an analogy, if you will, a metaphor – a horn of a ram, of a wild bull, of a wild ox. The horns represent the power and the strength to devastate a foe, to butt a foe, and to conquer and to kill, to deal ruthlessly with opposition. 

"And God has raised up a powerful horn of salvation (of deliverance) for us," again, referring to the elect of God, to all who will believe. He is such a powerful horn of salvation, He can save the chief of sinners. He can save the one furthest away from Him. He can save anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, no matter how soiled and tainted a person's past is. He is the horn of salvation. 

It says in verse 69, "in the house of David His servant." This means this horn has been raised up from the lineage of David. This horn of salvation is a descendant of David. He's in the royal kingly line, the messianic line. He is a rightful heir to be this Redeemer. 

Verse 70, "as He (God the Father) spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old." What that means is Zacharias is saying and praising to God. And this is all being directed to God, by the way. Zacharias is not standing in a pulpit speaking and preaching to a congregation of people like I am right now. This is him just declaring praise for God to God. And what Zacharias is saying in verse 70 here, the first line, is, "We have known for centuries that this horn was coming, this One who would accomplish salvation for us." 

People were saved in the Old Testament, but it was by faith in anticipating the One who would come, who would be the horn of salvation. They were saved by looking forward to the coming of Christ, just like you and I are saved by looking back at the first coming of Christ. And so we've known this horn was coming, God has promised it throughout the Old Testament. In fact, God Himself was the first one who promised it in Genesis 3:15, and through prophecies and types and images and pictures. It was all laid out for us, even His lineage, even the city in which He would be born. 

And now he concludes in verse 71, he comes back to the main idea: salvation. Zacharias is saying to God, "Salvation has come to us. The One who will bring salvation has now come." Now please note, "FROM OUR ENEMIES, AND FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US." If you have a New American Standard Bible, as do I, you'll note those are all in capital letters, which indicates this is a direct quote from the Old Testament word for word, and it is drawn from Psalm 106:10. 

And in Psalm 106:10, the people of God are praising God, because at the time following the Exodus when Moses led the children of God out of Egyptian bondage, they eventually came to the Red Sea, and they found themselves between a rock and a hard place. They cannot move forward because there's the Red Sea. And coming in behind them are the chariots of Pharaoh who were going to come and massacre them. And you recall Moses stands and lifts up the staff and says, "Stand back and see the salvation of God," and the Red Sea parts and the children of God go through as if on dry land, and they get to the other side. And the Egyptian chariots, they see this: "Well, we can do this too," and they come in hot pursuit. And once they are in what would have been the bottom of the Red Sea but on dry land, the invisible hand of God pulls back, and the waters come and drown them all until the bodies are just floating on the surface of the Red Sea. And in Exodus 15, Moses leads them in singing the song of Moses, because God has saved them from their enemies. God has delivered them and rescued them in their hour of death and peril. 

And so, Zacharias is so skilled and gifted with the Scripture, and he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and he's led to reach back to Psalm 106:10 and he quotes it right here. But his reference is not to a physical salvation like at the Red Sea, it's to a spiritual salvation, that the horn of salvation would accomplish the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came into this world, He conquered Satan and He conquered the forces of darkness. He utterly routed them and shamed them and subdued them. And we read in John 12:31, Jesus said as He approaches the cross, "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out." And in John 16:11, "The ruler of this world has been judged," in anticipation of the cross. It was a devastating blow that Jesus inflicted upon the kingdom of darkness in His death. Those are our real enemies. And in 1 John 3:8, this verse is even more specific: "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." That's what Jesus did at the cross, He destroyed the works of the devil. What a great victory Jesus won, our horn of salvation. He butted the devil, he butted the demons of hell, he butted the wages of sin as a horn on a bull would do, and triumphed over them. 

Conclusion

So, as I wrap this up – I'm not finished – but as I wrap this up, there is one single greatest need that you have in your life. You cannot have two greatest needs, you cannot have five greatest needs. There can only be one race to the superlative degree, your one greatest need. You know what that is? It's to be saved. Everything else in your life is of distant secondary importance. It doesn't even register on the radar compared to this one greatest need that you have. 

Your greatest need is not financial, it's not relational, it's not vocational, it's not family. Those are real needs. Not to diminish that, but they don't even begin to compete with your one greatest need, and that one greatest need is for you to be saved. And there's only one way for you to be saved and that is for you to put your faith and trust in the horn of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has accomplished redemption at the cross for you. And if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you are still in your sins; and if you die in your sins, there's no hope for you. There's no repentance in the grave. There's no second chance. It's now or never. What does a person have to do to go to hell? The answer is nothing. You're already going to hell if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. 

But salvation is being offered to everyone in this room as a free, prepaid gift that God has accomplished. God has done it. He has visited this planet in His Son Jesus Christ. But you must, as an act of your will, you must make the decisive choice to believe in Christ. No one else can believe for you. This is between you and God. And if you have never come to that place where you realize, "Oh, my God, I need to be saved; I have no hope but in Christ," then I would urge you in your heart of hearts, whether it's silent in your mind or verbally spoken by yourself or with someone else, you need to go to Christ and you need to tell Him how much you need to be saved. You need to tell Him what a sinner you are. And if you can't choke that out that "I'm a sinner," then you'll never be saved. 

Christ came for only one kind of person: sinners. He didn't come for good people, He came for bad people. And we all qualify for that. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so today as God's ambassador, I stand before you with an open Bible and call you to come to faith in Christ. I call you, I summon you this moment, not tomorrow, not next Sunday, now, today, to believe in Jesus Christ. And if I was you and you realize you're without Christ, I would not leave this building today without Christ. You have no idea what awaits you out there. And to die without Christ, there is no second chance to get it right. There's too much at stake. It's your eternal soul. 

But I have good news for you. God is a God of salvation. God delights in saving sinners. Jesus is the friend of sinners. He's come to seek and to save that which is lost. If you're without Christ, you qualify for that. And if you would come to Him, He would embrace you and forgive you and move into your life, and your life would never be the same again. The God who saves. Let us pray. 

[Prayer] Father, thank You for these verses. They really stand out. They stand out vividly from pages of Scripture. And we praise You, that You have mercy upon us, You have pity upon us in our lost condition, and that You have sent Your Son to accomplish salvation; and He did it, He did it all. So I pray that everyone in this house of worship today can say, "I am saved. I am saved by the blood of Christ. I am saved because of the mercy and grace of God." We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.