Luke 1:50-56

The book of Luke, chapter 1, reading verses 46 to 56, our focus this morning on verses 50 to 56. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaid. for behold, from henceforth all generation shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He has showed strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seed. and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty or sent empty away. He hath opened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers to Abraham and to his seed forever. and Mary abode with her about three months and returned to our own house. And God blessed to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. When the saints in heaven praise the Lord, one of the words that we find them using a lot is, Hallelujah. If you read the book of Revelation, especially chapter 19, they’re thinking and saying this, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power under the Lord our God. Amen. Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah is a compound word. Hail, which means praise, and Jah, means Jehovah. Praise Jehovah, is what it actually means. Sadly, much of this so-called. called praise that is being lifted up today in religious centers is really man-centered. It’s not God-centered, but man-centered. It consists of how somebody feels. Their emotional state. Scripture emphatically commands us that he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Lord and who he is and what he has done. True praise has to be God-centered. And that is what we find in our text. Now, Mary has gone to visit her relative Elizabeth upon hearing from the angel of the Lord giving her a child in her old age. Elizabeth would have a somewhat miraculous birth herself. in giving birth to John the Baptist. And Mary and Elizabeth had much to rejoice about when it came to God’s dealings with them. And we talked about the fellowship or communion that they had one with another in a previous study. We’ve been considering Mary’s song. And we said this song is broken into two parts. The first part, verses 46 to 49, is what God has done for her. In verses 50 to 55, it is what God has done for his people in general. So both aspects here are covered. Her personal situation and her people. What I would like to focus on this morning and have you notice is how Mary here in verses 50 through 55 continuously praises the attributes of God. One after another, she exalts in her praise here. And I think that’s something we should take to heart and learn that we may praise God or right. So we have a praise of God’s attributes. Now, let me begin with verse 56 and get that addressed first. And then we’ll look at the rest of the song here. Verse 56 is sort of a little attachment at the end here telling us what happened. Mary continued with Elizabeth about three months time. I remember she had heard that Elizabeth was six months pregnant. So we’ve got three more months added to it. So we know that John the Baptist is just about ready to be born when she decides she was going to return back to Nazareth. At this point, point, she also has had full satisfaction of, I think, the truth of what the angel had told her. Elizabeth pregnancy has come to full term. And after three months, I think Mary is aware of the fact that she, too, as God has promised, is pregnant. And I think that the idea of her acting in faith that’s mentioned earlier by Elizabeth is also something that comes into play. She didn’t have the evidence of it until she, you know, three months later, she’s now getting more evidence with regard to how things would develop in a woman at this stage. At this point, Mary returns to Nazareth in Galilee, perhaps wanting to stay out of the public eye. And she goes back there. Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, you remember, and according to Matthew’s gospel, was mindful to put her away privately privately when he recognized that she was pregnant, thinking she’s done something that wasn’t right. But God informs Joseph of the whole matter. He’s encouraged to take her for his wife. And that is the circumstance of the background. at this particular time. But let’s look at the rest of the song here of Mary. The first thing I’ll mention to you is this. You should praise God for his mercy. Notice verse 50. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. Mary speaks here of the sweetness of God’s mercy, a great theme for praise. How often do we find in God’s hymn book, the Psalter, this phrase, His mercy, endureth forever. There’s one particular Psalm. I think it’s every other line. Is his mercy endureth forever. And so we should realize this is an important aspect of praise. Your God is worthy of praise, for His mercy is shown to those who are of low estate. She mentions it in verse 48 when she talks about her low estate. She also mentions it in verse 52 when she uses the word low degree. Now, not everybody is a recipient of divine mercy, for God says that I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Not even all who physically descended from Abraham are recipients of God’s mercy, for Mary speaks here of them that fear him as a way of qualifying those who receive the mercy. God’s mercy is reserved for his elect, who are called vessels of mercy in Scripture in Romans 9. Mercy. Now that’s what you need as a sinner. This is what God grants through the Savior Jesus Christ, who’s about to be born. Mercy. The story has been told about a mother who sought from the French Emperor Napoleon the pardon of her son. And the emperor said it was the man’s second offense, and justice demanded his death. To which the mother replied, I don’t ask for justice. I plead for mercy. To which the emperor replied, but he doesn’t deserve mercy. To which the mother replied, sir, it would not be mercy if he would not be mercy if he deserved it. Mercy is all I ask. To which the emperor said, well then, I will show mercy and her son was spared. Mercy is not something we earn. Mercy is, it’s undeserved. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed as transgresses of his law. When we think about the publican at the temple, we feel like that at times. We can’t even lift up our eyes to heaven. We stand before God is shamed and disgraced and condemned. We be upon our breast in agony and cry out, God be merciful to me a sinner. And does not God forgive us when we cry out to him for mercy and grant you what you need? Did not the publican go down to his house justified, as the scripture indicates to us, has not God shown us mercy? As a Christian, you may bemoan your backslidings. Like a wayward sheep, you’ve wandered away from the shepherd. And yet, come back to the Lord. Confess your sinful wanderings. Throw yourself upon the mercy of God. Have you not always found that God is merciful? Doesn’t always God forgive his people? Does he always restore us when we come back to us? him and repent. Magnify God’s mercy. Rejoice in his mercy. Say with the Psalmist, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. It deserves praise. That’s Psalm 89.1. So you should praise God for his mercy. And that’s what she does here. Notice also in verse 50, you should praise God for his immutability. She declares his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. What does this tell us? He’s the same God from one generation to the other. He remains the same. He doesn’t change. If he was a merciful God in the past, he’ll be a merciful God in the present and in the future, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. Deuteronomy 7.9. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. Psalm 10317. What a poor foundation you would have for your hope if God was a changeable God. If he changed from one generation to the next. You remember when Moses was on the backside of the desert taking care of the sheep and all of a sudden the Lord appears to Moses at the burning bush on the backside of that desert and what did he tell Moses? I am the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am the same God that appear to them. That had dealings with them. He is the great I am. indicating us a constant state of being. He doesn’t change. He doesn’t evolve. He doesn’t show any variableness about him. What he is right now is what he was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And guess what? When we get to the far-flung future, if we go much further, he’ll be the same. He’ll be the same. He’ll be the same. This is something we can have absolute confidence about. Every generation of mankind has to deal with the very same God. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is immutable in his being, in his attributes, and in his counsel, and thus, His mercy is everlasting. Psalm 100, verse 5. I read a quotation from John Calvin that I thought was interesting. I was reading a biography on John Gill, the Baptist minister. And in this book, there was a quotation from Calvin that I thought was quite striking. He said this, I quote. The thought is ever and an anon recurring to me that I am in danger of insulting the mercy of God, but laboring with so much anxiety to maintain it as if it were doubtful or obscure, unquote. Kelman says, I’m guilty of trying to maintain the mercy of God when I should recognize it is it’s going to be the same always. You don’t maintain it. God is the one who’s always the same. So here’s the comfort for your soul. I am the Lord, I change not. Now that should indicate to you two things. things. One, that you can rely upon God. You can’t rely upon man. He is as changeable as can be. He’s unstable. He’s unpredictable. If God varied as human beings do, if he willed one thing today and another tomorrow, who could confide in it? But he’s everlasting to same. His purpose is fixed. His will is stable. His word is sure. The permanence of God’s character guarantees them the fulfillment of every promise that he’s made in his word. God is compared to a rock. He’s unmovable. Stephen Charnock once said this. What comfort would it be to pray to a God that, like a chameleon, change color every moment? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that was so mutable as to grant a petition one day and deny it another? Look back on your own experience. Has the throne of grace ever been barred to you? Has God ever withdrawn his promises and say, no more, I’m not going to do what I said regarding you? Has God ever forgotten to be gracious? Has Christ ever stopped being your advocate and interceding for you? Has Christ ever cast you off and disowned you as a wayward sheep? Does He not as the true shepherd always go after you? you? Have you ever found, have you not found, I should say this. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 213. Our unfaithfulness doesn’t change God’s faithfulness. You have every reason then to come boldly to the throne of grace to find, obtain mercy, and find grace in the time of need. It’s always available. always available. So you should praise God for his immutability. The third thing I mentioned this morning. You should praise God for his power. Now notice verse 51, where he has showed strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. Now, Scripture often uses human language when speaking of God, his arm, his finger, his hand, but it denotes here his power being shown or expressed in some way. Psalm 981 says, oh, sing unto the Lord, for he had done marvelous things, his right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory. So his mighty actions, his mighty powers clearly displayed in his actions. We saw an indication of his mighty power, even in the incarnation of Christ, when we read about it in verse 35 of this chapter, the Bible talks about the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Bring about the virgin birth. But power belongs unto God and to Him alone. Now the word showed here, I think, is interesting. He has showed strength with his arm. Which indicates that throughout biblical history, we have God’s power on display. We see his mighty acts for us to recognize. Like the creation of the world where he spoke the world into being by his bare word. Like the shower of the world into being by his bare word. Like the shower of the world, Fire and brimstone, he brought down on Sodom and Gomorrah and brought about a sudden destruction. We think about the terrifying plagues on Egypt, the frogs and the lice and the flies and the locusts and the darkness and the death of the firstborn and so forth. Pharaoh and his army being drowned in the Red Sea. The large hailstones held down on the hurled down on the Canaanites in Joshua’s Day. The collapse of the walls of Jericho. The earth opening up and swallowing Korah in his company. The keeping of the sun from setting in Joshua’s day. David’s victory over Goliath. The shutting of the mouths of the lions with regard to Daniel. The granting of life to the dead in Elijah’s case there. and Elisha also. God resists the proud. Who imagine they can defeat his purpose. That they can destroy his people. He scatters them. His providence disappoints their expectations. He blasts their plans. He causes their downfall. I read in scripture about a man named Nimrod and his fall was erecting a tower of Babel to reach the heavens. And of course, God frustrates their plans, but just changing the language. Everybody get in a different language. Pharaoh tries to bring about Israel’s demise by drowning all the male babies. God spares his people, and then he drowns Pharaoh in the Red Sea. You hear the army commander of the Assyrians taught the Israelites, neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying the Lord will surely deliver us. He blasphemes the name of Jehovah God and expects an easy victory in what happens. The Lord strikes down 185,000 Assyrians overnight and he has to turn tail humiliated and go back home. Do you think that any dark conspiracy that arises in our day will somehow or other destroy the people of God? No, the arm of the Lord is not short. that it cannot say. It will reach out and do as he’s done in the past. People are imagining a vain thing, if they think that. If they think they can eradicate the word of God from society, it is a vain thing. It doesn’t matter whether people ban the Bible, burn the Bible, whatever it’s not going to be destroyed. You look at all those who try to undermine your faith in the Holy Scriptures, to tear from God’s word this book or this verse or this chapter, but Jehovah’s arm has not waxed short. He preserves his word down through the centuries. Not a jot or tidal of it will be destroyed. Or lost. You should praise God for his power. Notice you should praise God for his sovereignty in verses 52 and 53. For we have put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of lower degree. He had filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. Mighty kings and emperors are cast down from their thrones by God as he sees fit. I remember in the book of Daniel. He is praised by Daniel. He changes the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and seteth up kings. He said that when God revealed to Daniel the dream of Nebuchadnezzar about the kingdoms. Remember the metallic image? Dream that he had. About the four kingdoms that were coming. God’s going to remove one. He’ll put up another. He’ll remove that one. He’ll put up another. And so forth. Until he removes them all and sets up his own kingdom. Christ’s king. Friends, we have to recognize that men don’t rule this earth. God does. The king’s heart is the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he will, Proverbs 21-1. Scripture declares that what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. Job 2313. None can stay his hand or thwart his purpose if the most mighty on earth cannot thwart the purpose of God. When we talk about kings here, those in great authority. If they can’t do it, there is no individual. They can do it. He exalted them of low degree. This teaches us that the world does not remove or revolve by blind impulse or fate. Everything that happens is brought about by divine providence. We can talk about the least things. Like the casting of a lot. Look at it in the story of Esther. Look at it in the story of Jonah. To the downfall of a king, one of the greater things, such as King Saul or Absalon. Every disturbance to the fabric of our world is carefully regulated by a sovereign God. God does things which end up dethroning the mighty while raising up people. of low degree. I read about David. I see that he’s a little shepherd boy, taking care of his father’s sheep, not even ready to enter into the army of King Saul. and yet he is the one God anoints to be the next king of Israel. And mighty Saul with all his power and all his authority and all his ruthlessness is put down. easily by the Lord. I read about Daniel. Here’s a lowly captive, hauled off into captivity to Babylon, put in a position raised up by God to a position of great power and authority in the land of Babylon and also in the land of the Medes and the Persons. and also in the land of the Medes and the Purrish. that’s all. The ruthless, invisible Nebuchadnezzar who took him away, captive, loses his throne for a time and roams the woods like a beast. The lowly exalts, the proud he lows. I read about Mordecai. A lowly captive in the Medo-Persian Empire, he’s marked for destruction by the favored prince of King of Hazuarez. But soon, he has replaced that evil man, Haman, and Mordecai now is the one who is the favored prince. And Haman is hung on the very gallows he raised to hang Mordecai. That’s God doing that. No doubt Mary includes herself in this aspect of the lowly or the common being raised up and so forth. She’s just a poor common woman exalted to bear the king of kings bring them into the world. Verse 53, he hath filled the hungry with good things in the rich, he has sent away empty. The sovereign goodness of God toward Mary was just one example of his normal providence. God often supplies the needs and enriches the condition of the literally poor and hungry while reducing the literally rich to bankruptcy and ruin. We see how miraculously God provides for his people. Whatever they have a need, he takes care of them, whether he has to send Elijah to the Brook Chirreth and have the ravens bring him meat. Whether he has 200 prophets or 100 prophets of the Lord who Jezebel would easily kill, but he has them hit away in a cave, 50 at a time. And they were provided for by the king’s provisions without the king knowing it. God takes care of his own. But there’s a spiritual sense in which I think we could apply this text as well, which is beneficial. If we think about the rich here, we can think about those who think they are rich spiritually and have nothing. These are the self-righteous, who imagine themselves of good character and standing before God who don’t even realize that they are wretched and poor and blind and naked. And we think about the poor here. We can think about the poor and spirit, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who are sensible of their ignorance, of their guilty and sinful condition, fearful of perishing eternally, and yet God provides for them. You know, the Pharisee didn’t come to the temple to ask God for anything. He sees himself as perfectly acceptable the way he is. He’s clothed in his own righteous righteous acts. In a spirit of pride, he thinks that God, he thanks God, that he’s not like everybody else. God’s certainly thankful. I’m not like this publican over here. The publican, full of need, and completely aware of how unworthy he was of God’s favor and acceptance, anxiously cries out, God be merciful to be a sinner. And yet he goes down to his house justified, whereas the Pharisee does not. The great things of the gospel are hidden from the wise and the prudent, but revealed on the babes. Not many wise, rich, or noble are called the salvation. Beggers like Lazarus are lifted up from the dunghill to sit among God’s princes and inherit eternal paradise, whereas the rich man ends up lifting up his eyes in hell and being in torment. Tax collectors and harlots, low lives of society end up entering into the kingdom of God before the self-righteous, self-exalted scribes and Pharisees. Let’s rejoice in the sovereign grace of God that’s been granted to us in Jesus Christ. You should praise God for his sovereignty. Fifthly, you should praise God for his faithfulness. Versus 54 and 55. He has hopin his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers to Abraham and his seed forever. Now, you’ll notice that Israel here does not refer to national Israel, but to the Israel of God. This is the elect that we’re speaking of here. Them that fear him, as she’s mentioned in verse 50, for all are not Israel, which are of Israel, nor could the non-elect truly be classified as God’s servants dedicated to serving him. Indeed, Israel, the Israel of God, include all believers in every age, even Gentiles, who are grafted in the olive tree of true Israel. So we should take it, I think, in that sense, in this passage of Scripture. God often helped Israel before. But the greatest help he’s ever sent is in the person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. This he did in remembrance of the covenant mercy promised to his people. He said he would send a redeemer. He would send a Savior. He would send a Savior. He promised a seed to Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. rest. Reiterated the same promise to Isaac and Jacob. He fulfilled the promise that was made to the patriarchs, including David. But if we especially go to Abraham and his spiritual seed, we see that that that is what is included here. All those in Christ, this was a promise of mercy forever, of everlasting mercy, which would be granted to all the believing seed of Abraham in every generation. You see those words as he spake. Whatever God has said, whatever God has promised, is sure to come to pass because God is always faithful. Know therefore that the Lord by God, he is God, the faithful God. Deuteronomy 7.9. Whatever God has said, even if it’s thousands of years before, is going to come to pass, it stands fast. Forever and ever, it cannot be changed. Search the scriptures. If you find in them a promise, you can count on it. Don’t say, I hope that’s true, because that would be an insult to your God, who’s always faithful. Believe what God has promised. Rest your confidence in it. Let it be the comfort of your heart. An apprehension of the blessed truth of God’s word will preserve you from worry. It will breed in increasing confidence in God. Everything promised you in Christ most assuredly will be granted to you. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Verse Thessalonians 5.24. Hallelujah is a Hebrew word meaning praise Jehovah. We read about the saints in heaven using that term frequently. We find it in the Psalms being used. Sadly, as I said, much of the praise that we have today is sort of man-centered, my emotions, my feelings are what count. Whereas our praise should be God-focused. Mary’s praise here is all about the attributes of God. Who he is. I hope that as we worship the Lord God, we would praise him for his mercy, for his immutability, his power, his solid, his poverty and his faithfulness, just as she does. Let this be an example for us. Let us close with a word of prayer.