What Exactly Did Mary Know?

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Title: What Exactly Did Marry Know?

Speaker: Elder Jonathan Moseley

Location: Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church | Tifton, GA

Date: December 22, 2025

Bible: Romans 6

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The sermon traces the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in the birth of Jesus Christ, emphasizing God's faithfulness across centuries. Beginning with Isaiah's prophecy of a virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Immanuel—God with us—the message underscores the miraculous, divinely orchestrated nature of Christ's incarnation, which defied human logic and was foretold over 700 years in advance.

The narrative then unfolds through the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth, whose son John the Baptist would prepare the way for the Messiah, and Mary, who humbly submitted to God's plan despite her confusion, becoming the vessel through whom the Son of God entered history. The sermon highlights how every detail—from the virgin birth and divine conception by the Holy Spirit to the fulfillment of covenant promises in David's line—demonstrates God's sovereign grace and the impossibility of human achievement, culminating in the declaration that Jesus, the Savior, would redeem His people from their sins. This historical and theological foundation is not merely a past event but the living reality of God's ongoing work, pointing forward to Christ's resurrection, ascension, and promised return, where His victory over sin and death continues to transform lives.

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[Transcript]

We are fully prepared and ready to continue our study of Romans, but I felt like I needed to take a slightly different direction, so we are going to start in Isaiah chapter 7. Isaiah chapter 7. Now we will try not to indulge in too much context. You know me; I can get very deep into that, and it may not be as necessary this morning as it would be otherwise.

Isaiah was a prophet who was active for a long time. If you read the first chapter, it lists the kings during whose reigns he served as a prophet for the Lord, and it is a long list. If you examine the tenure of those kings, you are talking about over 100 years. Now, obviously that does not mean Isaiah had to be actively serving the entire time, but you know that from at least the earliest to the latest king on the list, he must have served during both reigns, so probably a minimum of 40 years.

And so one of those kings in chapter 7, named Ahaz, he was what we would call not a good king. This is after the nation of Israel had already split into two. That happened after Solomon. So you have the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And so Ahaz was about the 13th king after Solomon in the southern kingdom. I did not go back and count this morning, so you can fact-check me on that. His father was a good king who served the Lord. Ahaz, however, was not. To give you an idea of how wicked he was, he sacrificed his own children to idols. That is not a good way to begin your reign as a king.

And so he has some troubles. In chapter 7, the northern kingdom of Israel is forming an alliance with its neighbor, Syria. They are going to attack and defeat Judah. In fact, they attempted to assault Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built in the mountains; it is essentially a mountain fortress. It is very difficult to conquer, in addition to God's protection. Therefore, the attackers were unsuccessful. However, the people of Judah are still very upset and frightened because they now have two enemies who are conspiring against them. It is bad enough to have enemies, but when enemies collaborate...

As a king who is not genuinely interested in worshiping God, when a prophet comes to him, the prophet Isaiah comes to him and assures him that everything will be fine, he does not believe him. That is the situation in which God is sending Isaiah early. God says, "Go speak to him. Tell him, 'Do not be afraid. Be quiet. These two nations, I will deal with them.' Furthermore, the northern kingdom of Israel will, within 65 years, completely cease to exist. This prophecy reveals what will happen to the northern kingdom: it will be conquered by an empire known as the Assyrians, the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians will not be allowed to conquer all of Judah. That privilege will fall to the next empire, Babylon."

But in verse 9 it says, "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." So that was the warning to King Ahaz. If you do not believe, your kingdom will not be established. And Ahaz does not believe. In fact, the Lord tells Ahaz, "Ask a sign of the Lord. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above." So you have permission from this prophet. Ask a sign to prove that these things will be correct. And you can ask for something dramatic in the depths. That could be the sea, that could be the ground. You remember what happened in the wilderness where the ground opened up and swallowed some people? That would be pretty dramatic. A sign in the heights could be something in the stars, right? You ask, and the Lord is willing to give this sign. Ahaz says, "I will not ask. Neither will I tempt the Lord. I am not going to test Him, I am not going to provoke Him." And so, God says, "Hear now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign." All right, you will not pick a sign. God is going to give you a sign that God picked.

Here is the sign. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." It continues on with this prophecy, but we will just stop there for now. The virgin shall conceive. Now there are people today who try to refute the idea that Mary was actually a virgin, that she had never been with someone, because they look at this verse and say, "Well, 'virgin' could also be translated 'young girl.'" Okay, if God is picking a sign to establish that something is going to happen, and the sign that He chose, according to their reading, is that a young girl could get pregnant, is that much of a sign? I mean, that is a pretty weak sign. I mean, that is normal. That happens.

But if what it is saying is actually what it means, and that is something good with the Bible. You take what it says; words have meaning. A woman who has never known a man conceives and has a baby. And the name of that baby will be Emmanuel, which means God with us. That is a pretty good sign. That is something that only God could do. Right? So, this was written 750, roughly, years before it was going to be fulfilled.

You know what that Syrian king wound up doing? He wound up taking all the gold and other valuables out of the temple, taking all that, and buying a mercenary army. He paid another king to come down and protect him. He did not believe God; he did not trust Him, and so he eventually came to no good end. But here, that is who God is revealing, this facet, this aspect of the Christ. Now, the prophets of the Old Testament, in the grand scheme, what are they all ultimately pointing to? They are pointing to the coming of the Christ. The Hebrew word for Christ is Messiah. It means the anointed one, the one who is coming, right? This is what we are all pointing to. And so here, Isaiah 750 years, again that is Paul Park, but before it is going to be fulfilled, is saying, a virgin will conceive. I mean, that is wild. I mean, you think about someone who is born blind and Jesus healing and giving sight. That is amazing, but the idea of emergent birth, this is impossible with men. Okay? This is why it is so amazing, so direct.

And the timing here, if you and I were to go back 750 years, where would that put us? In the 1200s? Do any of you know of anything that anyone said in the 1200s? Much less saying it, and then it came true, with such great specificity. You know, a lot of the prophecies that people are talking about today are very vague and nebulous, and they can be fulfilled by a myriad of things. I mean, you go to one of these fortune-telling places, you know, no offense. You see them on the side, and they are trying to give you this, you know, fortune reading, and they give you a bunch of nonsense, but because it can, oh, well, love is in your future. But something that has never, ever, ever, ever, ever happened, and not only has it never happened, it is impossible to happen. And yet, it does happen. Who is the source of that? Both coming up with it, because this guy, Ahaz, would not even pick a sign, right? Because he was telling them that your enemies are going to be destroyed. And so he could have picked a sign, but he did not. And so God gave him this sign.

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and she shall bear a son." So not only that, this is before sonograms, right? She is going to conceive. Not a 50-50 chance here. This is going to be a boy, and he will be known as Emmanuel, God with us.

Alright, now there are some other details that were given before that would be revealed. So if you go to Isaiah chapter 40, again, same time period, 700, 750 years beforehand. In Isaiah chapter 40, this prophecy is given to Isaiah for the people.

The boys and I, me enjoying them begrudgingly, have been listening to Handel's Messiah, which is mostly based on Isaiah 40. "Comfort ye," it is fun to listen to because it is scripture. Now sometimes you have to be reading it to understand what they are doing, all their vocalizations, but comfort ye.

Comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. If we were to receive the justice for our sins, that would be hell and cast away. So we have been pardoned for our sins and not only gotten back to scratch with pardon, but He has also given us Christ's righteousness. And so you have received really double grace. He has forgiven you and then given you Christ's righteousness to be with Him.

Comfort, this is good news. This is the message of grace. Verse 3 says, "The voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. That Lord is in all caps. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make ye straight in the desert, a highway for our God."

Have you ever seen that movie Cars? What's the problem with Route 66 or whatever? It's not available anymore because they built the interstate. And what did they do with the big hills? They plowed right through them. And the valleys? Well, they put bridges upon them. You have got this straight shot. That's the idea of making the highway is that things are being prepared for the Lord.

Every valley shall be exalted. Every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. We are talking about the forerunner, the messenger that is going to come before the Christ. You know his name; it is John the Baptist.

Unlike other prophets, John the Baptist was not given the ability to perform eating miracles. He did not have signs and wonders, and yet he came and he spoke the truth: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And then finally, when he baptized Jesus, he was able to say, "Here is the Lamb of God." He was the herald. This is why Jesus could say that among those who are born of women, there has never been a greater prophet than John the Baptist, because his message was so great. He was the final herald.

All these Old Testament prophets had been pointing to the Christ. And John could say, "Here He is." This is great. Well, this again was 750 years beforehand, saying that it was going to come. It was going to come this way. There was going to be one who comes and prepares the way, prepares a people. Now, this was written before Israel had gone into captivity, before Judah would go into captivity. And so you fast-forward to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. All right. The last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. This was written after they had gone into captivity in Babylon, after the Persian or the Syrian Empire had allowed them to go back to Jerusalem, and not everybody went. They were still scattered abroad. The temple had been rebuilt, and you were about to enter into a period of silence.

All right? Have you ever watched a movie or seen a musical piece performed, and you have this kind of building to a grand moment, and then you just have a period of silence, and the tension just builds, and you are like, "When am I going to start?" That is kind of what we are going through here with these 400 years where everything that needed to be said had been said. Now you are just waiting. There were events that happened in Israel in between that time, but as far as God speaking to His people and telling about the Christ, Malachi was the last one.

And in verse 3, he says—Malachi chapter 3, verse 1 says, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." So you have an allusion here to both the forerunner, John, and the Christ coming and coming into his temple, right? He is coming in front of me, right? Who is speaking? Jehovah, God, right? These are the last moments.

And then how is the letter or prophecy in chapter four? "For behold, the day cometh. Let us see. For the sake of time, let us jump to verse 4: 'Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb unto all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.'" So this is an allusion to the Lord sending Elijah the prophet, and he is going to be effective in changing and turning the hearts of the people who had departed from the Lord, and now they are prepared and ready to follow him.

So that was the last note. That was the last word. And then, radio silence. Now, we know that the Holy Spirit would still speak to individuals. There were people who were alive at Jesus's birth who had been told, "You are going to see the Christ before your death." But as far as God speaking publicly to his people, there was nothing else. Four hundred years, right? Our country is not even that old, okay? This is a big period of time.

Alright, let's proceed to the background information. We could delve deeper, but we won't. Let's turn to Luke chapter one. There is a significant amount of material. I likely won't cover it all. I may choose to continue tonight at 5:00. So, please return. Alright. So, Luke chapter one begins with an introduction to the person to whom he is writing, Theophilus. He wants him to know with certainty the things that he has been taught. So, we will begin at verse 5. "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth." So, we have a couple. He is a priest. She is from a priestly family, descendants of Aaron. Both were righteous. These were good people. "They were both righteous before the Lord, blameless in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord." They had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. Alright, so he had been a priest for a long time. She had been his wife for a long time, and they had exactly zero children. It wasn't that they had done something wrong. It was simply the way things were. And the Lord is going to use them.

So, we zoom in on a particular scene. It came to pass that while he executed the priest's office, that detail about the course of Abbiah, you have a bunch of priests at this time. So, the organizational structure was that you would come and serve for a period of time as a priest, and then you would go home. So, it is during his turn that he is there, and it turned out his turn was to burn incense. It was one of many jobs as a priest; his was to burn incense. So it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the time of incense.

Alright, so imagine in your mind's eye, you have this massive temple structure, okay? Inside of it, you have large courtyards. There are various parts to it. We will talk about that later. But inside, you have another building. Inside that, that is really the only place a priest could go. And it is divided. In the back part is where the Ark would be. It is lost by this point. It has been gone since the captivity of Babylon. And in the front portion of that, you would have some furniture articles. One would be an altar, a small altar, where they burned incense. Another would be a table where they had the showbread, and the other would be this candlestick. These are all the things that God had told Moses, "Here is how you are going to worship me," all the way back in the wilderness. Outside, in the courtyard, you would also have the big altar where you burn animals. You did not do any of that on the incense altar. It is small, okay?

He is in there. He is by himself. Everyone else, there are individuals and priests who are out in the courtyard area, and they are praying. He is performing this offering of incense, and they are outside praying. So while he is in there doing that, you know, sprinkling his incense, what happens? There appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. All right, so these are some details, all right? He is there, he looks up, he is supposed to be by himself, and now there is an angel standing right there where he is working. Ah! Right? This is startling. And Zacharias saw him, and he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. I do not know what the angel looked like, but he was scared, right? Angels are stronger than we are. Am I correct? He was scared. Fear fell upon him, he was troubled.

What does the angel say? He says, "Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard." What do you think his prayer was? He has probably been praying for years. He has probably quit praying by this point, but he would have a son or a child. "Thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." This is wonderful! An angel of the Lord is there to appear to you and say, "Your prayer is heard." It has been a long time since you have been praying. You are now old, and your wife is postmenopausal. She is not having babies naturally anymore. You are going to have a son, and you are going to call him John.

"And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth." This is bigger than you. Many are going to rejoice, right? What is that role that he is going to occupy? He is going to be the forerunner, which means Christ is close, the Messiah is close. Why will they rejoice? "For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." He is going to be used by the Lord.

Now, remember in the Old Testament ceremonial law, there was the concept of one who was set apart for the service of the Lord, called a Nazarite. They would not cut their hair, and they would not drink any wine. It does not necessarily say that he was that, but it is a similar picture. He is set apart for the Lord's service. It says he is going to be filled with the Holy Ghost while he is still in utero, while he is still in his mother's belly. That is pretty cool. What is he going to do? He shall turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Wow, God is sending a new prophet. He has not done that in a long time. He is going to turn the people who have departed from the Lord in many ways back to Him. That is a great thing.

He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah. He shall go before Him. He is John, but who is the Him? If you read back up, we have not introduced Jesus yet, but he shall turn them to the Lord their God, go before Him, the Lord their God, who is Jesus. We are talking about the same person, all right? But he is there saying, he is going to go before God. This is really cool. This is amazing. "In the spirit and power of Elijah." Hey, that sounds familiar. Malachi, right? "I am going to send Elijah to you." Elijah is just the Greek pronunciation and spelling of the Hebrew word Elijah. In the spirit and power of Elijah. Now, is he literally Elijah? No, he is not. He is John. So when the Pharisees and Sadducees sent inquisitors to John and said, "Who are you? Are you Elijah?" he could truthfully say, "No. I am John." He was not lying, but here the angel told his father that he is going to go in the spirit and the power of Elijah, all right? So that Old Testament notable prophet, the Lord has put the Holy Spirit upon him in that special way to go forth, right?

What is his role? To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. That is interesting. In the Old Testament, it described the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. Here, it uses the language of the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Why do you think the fathers would need to be turned to the children? It reminds me of the language where Jesus said, "Except you humble yourselves as these little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." There were many fathers in Israel who had a lot of religious knowledge and were very puffed up in pride, but they were not interested in God at all. It was just the appearance of it. But to humble themselves and to believe that this is the one. Oh, we. And to listen to him and to take it and believe it and run with it. And so there, in that context, that makes sense.

Well, what about the children to the fathers? Well, they are the children described as the disobedient, the rebellious, turning them to the wisdom of the just. Who is the wisdom of the just? Christ. And so you have all these sinners. Oh, sinners. who Jesus is very interested in because they are coming to him. They want to know. They know that they need a savior. Whereas the elites have no need of a savior. "We are already righteous. We keep the law. We are certainly better than you are."

So this was John's role. This was his mission. This is what the angel was saying to Zacharias. There, as he was in the temple, he had served his whole life in God as a priest. He had a lovely wife. They were both old now, but they had been faithful and blameless through all the years. An angel was speaking to him, giving this good news that he should know. And what did he do? He said, "How am I going to know this? Hold up. I am going to need some kind of sign that I know that this is true." Now, that was not uncommon in the Old Testament for God to give a sign in the short term when what was going to be given was a long time later, maybe after your death.

Now, was what the angel just said to him something that was a long time later? No! He said, "You are going to have a son. He is going to be involved in this situation. This is going to be relatively soon, but he was like, "I want a sign. For, I have to state the obvious, I am an old man, and my wife, well stricken in years, she says, this math does not work. And by human logic, you know, they could not figure out how that would happen. Who was standing in front of him talking to him? An angel, here is your sign. God sent an angel to talk to you. The angel identified himself. The angel answered and said, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God."

You have ever had an important messenger come to you from a company? It is not the lowest-level person, but rather someone who says, "I am in the boss's presence, and they sent me with this message." You would look at it a little bit differently, would you not? I stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak to you and show you these glad tidings. I am Gabriel. And behold, you shall be mute. This does not mean he becomes an idiot. It means he loses the ability to speak. He is mute. Do you want a sign? Here is a sign. Now you cannot talk. How long will this last? It will last until the day that these things are performed, because you do not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

Do you want a sign? Here is your sign. God is going to take away your power of speech until you have a son who is born and his name is John. How long is this man going to be mute? He is not at home yet. He is still doing his course. He has to finish his course, then go home, and at some point in the near future, she can see. So you are talking about probably close to a year. Here is your sign. He gets the opportunity to think about this the whole time. Perhaps I should have responded differently. But he did not believe that the angel had told him the truth. All he could see was that there are some logistical difficulties with this. The task has taken a little bit longer than normal to burn some incense, and so the people outside are waiting for him. They marvel that he tarried so long. How long does it take to burn incense? I do not know, but either way, it was longer than normal.

And when he came out, he could not speak to them. There is your sign, effective immediately. And they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless. So he was doing the pantomime, he was doing the charades. I do not know what he was doing, but they recognized that something had happened in there and he was speechless.

So, it came to pass that as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. So, however long he had to finish working for his course, then he got to go home and he went to his wife and they lived in the hill country of Judea.

So, verse 24 says, "After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months." All right, so you are an older lady, postmenopausal, and you discover, oh wow, here we are. And so her response was to, you know, start dressing differently, not necessarily go out to the market that often. She was hiding herself and she hid it for five months.

But saying to herself, "Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men." So there was a shame associated with that, that she was not able to have children. She wanted to. And so she said, "The Lord, now in my old days, has finally taken away this reproach, this shame that bothered me so long." She had been praying just like her husband to have children.

OK. So we are going to leave Elizabeth and Zacharias there in the hill country in Judea. So that is near to the south of Jerusalem somewhere. And we are going to zoom up to Galilee, about 70 miles north. Galilee is not the fashionable part of the nation. It is kind of the hinterlands, the backwaters, the important people are not there. It is the lowly, and in between Judea and Galilee is a region called Samaria, and they are even worse. We just do not even go there. We go around it. The Jews had nothing to do with the Samaritans.

So that same angel, the following month, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, was sent from God unto a city of Galilee. What city? The city of Nazareth. "...to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary." Alright. So, is she a young girl? Yes, she's a young girl. She's engaged. That's what it means to be espoused. She's not married yet, and she'll explicitly say later, "I have never known a man." So, both young girl and literally virgin.

This angel comes and says unto her,

"Hail! I'm going to read it without the italics. That's added in by the translators to try and make it more understandable. Hail! Highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women."

Mary is wildly confused. She saw him. She was troubled in her mind, troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind, what manner of salutation should this be? How in the world am I highly favored of God? The Lord is with me. I am extremely blessed. This does not make sense. I mean, this is, I mean, the Lord has never appeared to her before, never sent an angel before. There's no, you know, "Hey, we're coming, we're going to have this conversation." This is just out of the blue. I mean, one day, I mean, you're engaged, you're getting ready for a wedding, and an angel appears and says, "You are highly favored. The Lord has blessed you." I mean, just tilt? I mean, that just, that doesn't make sense to her. She's troubled. But she doesn't say anything.

The angel said unto her, "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God." So God is, out of all the women on the planet, now there were some limitations about who it could actually be because of the other prophets saying that it had to be of Israel, had to be of Jacob, had to be of Judah, had to be of David's line, all these different things, but of all the women that were eligible, God had selected this one. And she's just a girl or a young woman. She was not sinless. We know that no man, being the son of a human father and human mother, is possibly sinless. We know that from our study in Romans. There's none that seek after God, so she was just a girl or a woman. Again, probably like Elizabeth and Zacharias, she's probably obedient and doing the things that she could do as far as keeping the law, but she was not sinless. Things that are taught today about Mary that are not scriptural, and that's one of them.

So, you have found favor with God, and behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. The Hebrew pronunciation of the Greek word Jesus is Joshua. They both mean Jehovah saves, God saves. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father David." That is another prophecy about David's throne enduring forever. What happened after Babylon had conquered Judah and they had gone into captivity, there had not been a king since. There had been no one sitting on David's throne; all of his descendants, right? It had stopped. And yet He promised that David's descendants would have a throne and it would last forever. He is saying, this is the fulfillment. This child that you are going to have, it is going to be a boy. You are going to call him Jesus. He is going to be great. I mean, this is, that silly song, "Mary, Did You Know?" Here is what Mary knew. He is going to be great. He is going to be the son of the highest; his throne was given unto him. The Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever.

Is this something that could be told to an ordinary man? No man could fulfill this description. He is going to reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom shall have no end. So you are describing to Mary, who just happened to come in this afternoon, that she is going to have a baby. That is amazing enough. And He is going to be the Christ. He is going to be a king forever. I mean, that is some amazing, startling news. And Mary, rather than saying, "I need a sign," she says, "How can this be, seeing I know not a man?" As if she had never been with a man. She said, "How could this possibly be? I am not doubting it, I just do not understand how." And so the angel answers and says, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore, also the Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth. All right, so Mary and Elizabeth are cousins. She has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.

All right? Who made the sun and the moon and the stars? God. Who made the first man out of dirt? Yes, when He chose Abraham and Sarah, an old couple, and said, "I am going to make a nation out of you." Is that, if your job was, all right, you need to build a nation, would you start with an old couple? No. And the old couple got impatient, and that was why they had their handmaid deal with Hagar. They were trying to work it out for God. Abraham was about 100, and she was about 90 when Isaac was finally born.

You know what happened with Isaac's wife? She was barren for 20 years. Right? There is this pattern of God taking the least likely and doing it so no one else can get credit for this other than Him. So He is taking old sister Elizabeth over here and giving her a son, the forerunner for the Christ, and here taking this girl who has never known a man and saying, "The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you."

And that is important because if Jesus had a human father, Jesus would be a sinner, would he not? His sacrifice would mean nothing because he would not be a perfect lamb, he would not be without blemish. He could not have taken away anyone else's sins because he would have had his own. So he is unique. This is something that has never happened before: this individual, this young woman, was chosen as a vessel, chosen by God in order to carry something that had to come down from eternity to come into time.

Is she highly blessed? Yes, absolutely, because God chose her for this role. But do not take it beyond that. It does not mean that she is somehow not human or that she has some additional sway or intercessory ability. Scripture does not describe that at all. But she was very fortunate. The Lord chose to use her. And how she responds is very good. Mary said, "Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." She does not rebel. She does not operate full of doubt.

Now the expression, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord," it says, "Look, I am here, I am your servant. Do as you will. What you say, let that come to pass." So she is being humble, she is being submissive, she is yielding to the Lord. It is a very good response, not as good as the old priest, who ought to have known better. And so the angel departs.

Well, what does Mary do? She has just heard that her cousin, who is old, is now six months along. She travels 70-something miles down south. Now, how she got there and who carried her, I do not know. But she makes it down to Judea to go see Elizabeth. She went with haste into a city of Judea. We do not know what city they lived in. She entered into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. I mean, greeted. She said, "Hello. I hear you are expecting. I mean, this is... An angel has told you that your old cousin is now having a baby and told you that you are having a baby. These are two wonderful miracles. You are going, you are seeing."

And when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leapt in her womb. Now, who are we talking about there? We are talking about John the Baptist, are we not? He is jumping in the womb. Is this merely that the Bible is recording that she felt some flutters? No, it is not. The babe leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. The text will state further down, in verse 44, that the babe leapt in my womb for joy. This baby, whom God is using and who was set apart for this role, is so excited now that he has heard the voice of the mother of his Lord has come into the room. This is remarkable. He has not even been born yet, but he is still excited. The moment is drawing closer. The time is growing short. We have been waiting approximately 4,000 years for this moment, and now it is almost here.

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. She was about to speak, being fulfilled by the Holy Ghost. She was speaking on behalf of the Lord. She said with a loud voice, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."

Is Mary blessed among all women? Yes, she is extremely blessed. And is the child she will bear blessed? Yes, the child is extremely blessed. Indeed, the child is. This is Jesus. He is holy. He is set apart. This is the best.

All right. From where does this come to me? That means, how is this? How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me? This is amazing. For listen, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby leapt in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed. For there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.

It is wonderful that you believe; you have that link of faith, do you not? Mary had faith to believe that what she was being told would come to pass, and this was wonderful. And here she is saying that they will come to pass, all the things.

Had Mary conceived at this point? I do not know; perhaps she had. She might have, because later it says, "The Lord has done great things for me," whether that is just the appearance or not, we do not know exactly. But all that was promised was going to come to pass, all right?

How does Mary respond? Does she say, "Yes, I am great"? She does not make it about herself at all. It says, "My soul magnifies the Lord. I am lifting up, I am exalting God, right? My spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior." If she was sinless, would she need a Savior? She was a sinner just like the rest of us. God, her Savior, her deliverer, she is rejoicing in Him, she is exalting Him, she was rejoicing in God, my Savior.

He has regarded the low estate of His handmaid. That word "low estate" is the same one in another portion that is translated, I think it is Philippians 3:20, "this vile body." I am talking about the resurrection and the greater body that we are going to have. This vile body, this sin-cursed body, He has seen me lowly, unworthy, depressed, in low estate, this unworthy servant, this handmaid.

And behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed. How fortunate that God has chosen this unworthy one and has chosen to use her as a vessel to bring in His Son into this world.

For he that is mighty hath done great things to me. So this makes me think that she had already conceived at that point. He has done great things. Who is that? God! He has done great things, and holy is His name. His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their seats of power and exalted those of low degree. This is a mini version of the Sermon on the Mount, where the humble, the meek, and the poor are blessed, right? This is who God is exalting, and the proud, those who are lifted up against Him in rebellion, He is able to humble them. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.

He has done great things, and we are getting to the culmination, the building up of all these great things that He has done on a small scale for natural Israel. Here is what He is going to do for all the family of God, what we describe as spiritual Israel: He is going to deliver them. The Savior is lifting up the weak, the poor, and the humble, and bringing down the proud who stand in opposition to Him. That is wonderful. Is any of that about how great she is? No, she is just praising God, the One who is doing all this, and He is choosing to use her in the process. That is wonderful, but this is 750 years after He had said, "I am going to do this," and here it is. He has told her, "I am doing it," and now He is actively doing it. So they are rejoicing, and Mary stayed with her cousin for about three months.

Well, if she was six months along when he arrived, she left about three months later, which was around the time for delivery. So Elizabeth was at full term when she gave birth to a son. One verse describes all of her labor. I am sure it took a little longer than that. Her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. The news had been building, you know, old sister Elizabeth is, I mean, I do not know how old she was, but she safely carried the child and had a safe delivery. The baby and mother are fine. They are coming. They are rejoicing. This is wonderful. The father is so proud, but he is not saying a thing. He still cannot talk.

Do you know when they name the child? On the day they circumcise him, on the eighth day, right? That is the time when you are, I think it is vitamin K, like spikes in a baby. That is when they do the circumcision. You are best able to clot. That was when God said to circumcise a child. That is when they name him. The baby has been born. He cannot say a thing. The neighbors are coming. It came to pass that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. The neighbors, you know, they all give opinions, the opinions of your friends and neighbors. Have they ever had any opinions on your child's names? Well, they just named it for her. We are going to call him Zacharias after his father. You know, the father is not speaking up to say anything. Elizabeth answered, no. His mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called John.

Now, an angel had not appeared to her, but her husband, who had not had an opportunity to say anything out loud, clearly had the ability to write and communicate with her. And so they name; she says, his name is John. And they look at her as if she has three heads. None of your relatives have that name. That is not on your mother's side or your father's side. It does not make any sense. We will never do that, right? And so they made signs to his father about how he would have them call him. And that is pretty funny, right? He could hear, but they are making signs to him, asking, what is the child's name? So he asked for her writing tablet and said, his name is John. And they marveled, thinking, oh, he agrees with her. Well, they marveled even more after that, because then his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, and he praised God.

What he had not been able to do from the moment they found out she was conceived, and through this pregnancy, and through the birth, and now you are holding your son, he had not been able to praise God yet because of his unbelief. He had been silenced. So the first thing he does when everything has been fulfilled is say in the name of John; now he is praising God.

What happens all around town? We get a little nervous, right? Fear came upon all those who dwelt around about, and all that these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. You know, news travels. So throughout all that city and all the villages around, people are a little nervous. There is something strange about this child who was born and what happened with his father. And now he can talk as soon as they named him. They really do not know what to make of it.

And all they had heard was laid up in their hearts, and they wondered, what manner of child shall this be? All right, we are wondering, what is going to happen to this child? What is he going to grow up to be? We do not really know, and so this is kind of an open question for them. We just leave them there.

It says, "The hand of the Lord was with him." All right, so his father, Zacharias, is filled with the Holy Ghost, the same thing that had happened to his wife when Mary came in. He is filled with the Holy Ghost, and he prophesied, saying,

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people."

Now, has Jesus redeemed His people yet? No, but it is so close. Here is the forerunner, the one that was promised. The Christ is right behind him. It is close. I mean, it is so close that He has come, He is visiting, He has redeemed His people, and He hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.

All right, so biblical language, and you have this expression of a horn. Think about that on a goat or a ram or whatever. The stronger animal has the bigger horns, and they are able to defeat things. That is used as a word picture for power. It is often used for kings. When they lose, their horn is broken. Here, you have one who has been born, because they are not born, but Jesus is already conceived at this point. He is going to have more power than anyone, all right? And that reign that He is going to have, that reign of His kingdom, over the throne of David, it is going to endure forever. There is no one who has bigger horns they are able to defeat or break Jesus, all right? He hath raised up a horn of salvation, a power of deliverance for us in the house of David, in the house of His servant David, just as He promised, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began."

What have the prophets all been speaking of since the world began, since the Lord started giving them information? They have been speaking about this one that is to come, and that He is here. So He has not come on the scene yet. He has not started His public ministry. We are still about 30 years removed from that, but oh, it is close. The time is so close, and this is wonderful.

The end result is that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

That is a great description of heaven, where you are completely delivered from all your enemies and you are able to serve the Lord in His presence in holiness and righteousness without fear. That is what the Christ is coming to accomplish. That is what Jesus is coming to accomplish. He is going to do that. All of His people will be delivered from those who hate them, and they will be in His presence, holy and righteous.

Are you holy and righteous on your own? No, absolutely not, which is why He had to come and redeem you, to deliver you from the sentence of your sins. He took that sentence and gave you His righteousness so that you could be there and serve Him without fear. Why am I here? To serve Him, serving Him now, serving Him in glory, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

And thou, child, so you can imagine him just holding John there and looking at him, and thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, the one who is going before the Christ. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

You are going to be the one who goes before. You are going to be declaring, "The Christ is here, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent from your sins. He is here, and He is going to teach us. He is going to show us. He is going to guide our feet into the way of peace." This is wonderful. This is great news. This is just the forerunner's birth. This is not even Jesus' birth.

And so verse 80 gives you a little bit more detail on John. It says, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel."

All right, there is no way I am going to get to Luke chapter 2 today. So let's go to Matthew. So Mary comes home. Mary is pregnant. Joseph, her fiancé, is upset. Understandably, if anybody had ever tried to use the excuse before, "I did not do it; it just happened," no one would believe that.

So, now the birth of Jesus was this way. Matthew 1:18. "When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." Matthew is saying it is of the Holy Ghost, but as far as the people around her, they just knew she was found with child. There is a problem when your fiancé is found with child and it is not yours.

Now Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make a public example, was minded to put her away privily. Under the law, one who commits adultery, even if you are engaged, that is a capital offense. And even if they did not go through with a capital offense, he could have publicly shamed her, he could have done all manner of things. Since he was a just man, he did not want that. And so he was trying to figure out what to do. He said, "Well, I will just break it off and put it away privately." That is what he is thinking about. He is still trying to cogitate on it. And while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.

Now, this is a different appearance than with Zacharias and Mary. Neither of those said it was a dream. He's working there. He should be awake, right? He's burning incense. An angel appeared to him. Then, Mary, an angel appeared to her while she was awake. Here, Joseph, an angel appears to him in a dream and says, "Joseph, thou son of David, so genealogically, he was a descendant of David, in that line, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."

She had probably already told him that. But he did not have to take her word for it. God had sent an angel to the aggrieved fiancé, letting him know it was true. Alright, so this was not just some cover-up story that had gone, you know, beyond its original purpose of not upsetting Joseph. An angel was sent to him. What is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son. Again, no sonograms. There was a 50-50 chance, as far as anyone knew. She was going to have a boy. And thou, you, right? You have the right to make a choice on the name. Thou, Joseph, shall call his name Jesus. Remember, Jehovah saves. And he gives the reason why. For he, Jesus, shall save everybody, shall save his people, save them from their sins.

Joseph was given a lot of information that day, that Jesus has a people, He was going to save them and what he was going to save them from was the thing they needed saving from, which was their sins. And then he tells us, Matthew actually is going to tell us something. Why? All right. So we have this expression of now. Matthew uses that frequently when he is given additional information.

Now, all this was done so that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, saying, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is 'God with us.'" So here, Matthew is telling you what that Hebrew word Immanuel means. He is saying, "Why did this have to happen?" It is because God is fulfilling this promise that he had made all those years ago when Isaiah spoke it.

So what does Joseph do? He woke up, having been raised from sleep, and he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took his wife to himself, right? So they were engaged; they had not gone through with the wedding. Now he does not have to be afraid. She has not been unfaithful. There is a miracle going on here. This child is going to be incredibly special. He is going to save his people from their sins. He probably did not really understand all of what that meant or entailed, but he heard the word of the angel through his dream and he obeyed to take her to be his wife.

But they did not come together as husband and wife until after Jesus was born. So there is no question that he was not going to have Joseph as the natural father. "Being raised from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not until she brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus." Jehovah saves.

Now if we had another hour, we would go through the next chapter of Luke. I may do that; I will probably do that tonight. So, I probably did not tell you anything you do not know. That is all right. For you, it is safe, is it not, to hear again that this is not some kind of made-up Christmas carol myth? These are very distinct facts that God gave about distinct people, about promises that He had made over hundreds of years, and how He was fulfilling them down to every last jot and tittle, is that not right? He is going to get all the credit; He is going to do it in a way where no one else can take any credit, and He fulfills His promises. This is wonderful news.

And the great thing is the story does not stop just when the child is born. That is like the curtain is opened; we have been hearing the overture. It is coming, it is coming, it is coming. The curtain is open, and then you go. And the curtain really does not even close when He dies, because if it stopped there, that would be a sorry ending. Three days later, He arose and continues to live and ascends back up and has promised that He is going to come again. That is where we are operating. That is where we exist.

In between Him ascending to heaven and before He comes back, but the work that He came to do has been accomplished. That which the angel said that He will save His people, He did. And He continues to care for them and cares for you now and will, and He is going to come back and gather to Himself His own. This is the greatest story. Yes. And there is a lot more to it, so tune in.

This transcript was automatically generated and has been lightly edited using by SermonAudio's transcript software to adjust only the formatting for readability. If there is any substantive difference between the words spoken by the speaker and text, it is inadvertent and the audio or video recording should be relied upon.

Elder Jonathan Moseley is the Pastor of Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church located in Tifton, GA.