The title of the message this morning is a Spirit-Filled Visit. Mary is visiting Elizabeth, her relative, and Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit. In the text two weeks ago the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias as he was burning incense in the temple and told him that a son would be born to him. What a surprise, he had a wife who had lived to her old age, barren, never had children. Angel said, that's about to be over.

In last week's text, the same angel, Gabriel, appeared to Mary to tell her that even though She had never been in physical union with any man. She was going to be pregnant. Her son was going to be on the throne of David. He's going to be the son of the highest. His name would be Jesus, which means Jehovah is salvation, God is salvation.

In this week's text, Mary goes immediately to visit her relative Elizabeth. The angel Gabriel, having appeared to both of them, spoken marvelous things to both of them now, they're coming together in this visit. Let's ask the Lord to bless our time. God, your word is a treasure. I'm so thankful to be able to open it up, do my best to explain the precious treasures that are here.

Oh help me God, oh help the people who are listening to be able to get the most out of what you've given to us in this word. Thank you for giving it to us in Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to begin with verses 39 through 40. So hopefully your Bibles are still open to Luke chapter 1. Follow along as I reread verses 39 and 40.

Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. In these two verses, Mary travels to visit her relative Elizabeth. If you're taking notes on the handout filling in blanks, visit fills in the blank. Mary travels to visit her relative Elizabeth. The text says that Mary arose and went with haste.

Here's what David Garland says in his commentary. Translations often render it that she leaves with haste. But that phrase can also mean eagerly, with fervor or with earnest commitment. Her faith in the promise spurs her speedy departure to witness its fulfillment, as the shepherds will later hasten to the manger." This is actually, Garland says this is actually going to be a pattern in Luke. Mary hastens to Elizabeth, and When the shepherds hear from the angels what's happening, they will actually hasten using the same words to the manger to see the fulfillment of what they've heard.

I think this is a great way to think of it actually. Look back at verses 36 and 37. So just up a little, look back at verses 36 and 37. Now indeed Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age and This is now the sixth month for her who was called barren For with God nothing will be impossible. This is what Gabriel had said To Mary now, why did Gabriel tell Mary that Didn't have to do with Mary's pregnancy.

Didn't have to do with the work of God in Mary's life. Gabriel said that because it was a way to communicate to Mary that God was now working in wonderful and miraculous ways, not just in her own life, but elsewhere too. That with God, nothing will be impossible. He just told Mary amazing things And he tells Mary to give her confidence in the fulfillment of these things that her old barren relative Elizabeth is already in the sixth month of her pregnancy. And so Mary goes.

She goes immediately and she goes eagerly. Now, have you ever had something that you really needed to be able to talk to someone about, but there was practically no one you felt like you could talk to about that thing because of the sensitivities involved if you ever had something like that. You really need to talk to someone, but you really can't because of the sensitivities. There might be a list of one or two people on planet Earth that you could talk to about those things. If there ever was such a time, this was it.

But Mary can talk to Elizabeth about these things. Elizabeth is a relative. They already know each other. That much is clearly implied from their interactions. You can't read these interactions and say, oh, this is the first time she's meeting her relative.

No, no, never. It's completely out of step with what we read in the text. And in many ways, they are in the same boat. In many ways, they are in the same boat. The angel has come and told them that against all odds, all odds, they're to be pregnant.

J.C. Ryle says this, first let us seek the face of God. Then Let us seek the face of God. Then let us seek the face of God's friends. I think that's a perfect point to draw from this.

The face of God is primary. Seeking The face of God is primary. Seeking the face of God is primary. Amen to that. But then, then what?

Then seek the face of God's friends. Seek the company of God's friends. When you have sensitive things that Need sharing, need spoken of, go to God's friends. This is what Mary is doing. She has a godly, older relative who will have a context for the things that God is speaking into her life that are happening in her own life and she goes right away immediately and eagerly to be with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth lives in a city in the hill country of Judah. Jerusalem is in Judah. So Judah is the larger region. Jerusalem is obviously the capital of Israel there, the central point of the worship of God in the country of Israel. So This is a city not far from Jerusalem.

So that's where Mary goes. Elizabeth has secluded herself. New King James says she had hidden herself away. She secluded herself for the first five months of her pregnancy. That was verse 24.

This is now the sixth month of her pregnancy. And this certainly breaks that seclusion, a relative showing up who knows you're pregnant, even though you had secluded yourself. At least in this instance, this breaks that seclusion. Mary arrives. Mary enters the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Mary greets Elizabeth. Now verse 41. Verse 41, And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In this verse, John the Baptist leaps and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.

So if you're filling in blanks, leaps fills in the first blank, John the Baptist leaps, and Holy Spirit fills in the final two, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. Here's what happened when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting. So Mary enters the home. She greets Elizabeth. Here's what happens.

The Sound waves of Mary's greeting hit Elizabeth's eardrums and instantly the baby leaps in Elizabeth's womb. Now, ladies, assume you've never felt this. Even mothers assume you've never felt this. I know babies move during your pregnancies and you can feel it. And that they can even be disruptively active.

Is that an accurate description of what you feel sometimes during your pregnancy, that baby being disruptively active? Even so, this is something else altogether. Undoubtedly by the sixth month of her pregnancy, there had already been plenty of movement, she knows what that feels like. But what happened in this moment required a totally different understanding of it and a totally different response to it. And that's what you get.

Totally different understanding to the normal movement in the six month of pregnancy and a totally different response to it is what we have in our text. Here's what else happened when the sound waves of Mary's greeting hit Elizabeth eardrums. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I hope you like hearing about the Holy Spirit because there's going to be a lot of it in Luke. It's actually one of the great emphasis of this gospel is the activity of the Holy Spirit by name, meaning the text is going to be saying the Holy Spirit did this.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit. We're going to encounter that over and over again in the Gospel of Luke. So I hope you hear about it. I hope you like hearing about it because we're in for a lot of it. But understand this text is at the close of the intertestamental period.

What is the intertestamental period? The 400 years from the last prophet that spoke for God authoritatively inspired Malachi and the re-entry of that kind of revelation. There's been 400 years. They're called the 400 silent years between the Old Testament and New Testament revelation of God through prophets. You have this 400 years of silence, but now the silence is being broken Now Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks out of supernatural insight and inspiration words that God is going to capture and make scripture for us.

That hasn't happened for 400 years. Someone being inspired by the Holy Spirit to say something that God then captures and sends down to generations to us through scripture. Now that is happening. Obviously, we're studying it today in scripture. The baby in her womb, John the Baptist, was already filled with the Holy Spirit.

Gabriel said that in verse 15. This baby will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. Here we are. This leaping in his mother's womb is proof that what Gabriel had said to Zacharias has been fulfilled is true. And Elizabeth's husband and this baby's father Zacharias will be filled with the Holy Spirit in verse 67.

You're going to see those same words. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and there's going to be an extensive prophecy given by the Holy Spirit. And That's just Luke chapter 1. You've had 400 years of none of this, and now it's Elizabeth and it's John the Baptist in her womb and it's Zechariah with an extensive prophecy filled with the Holy Spirit. What are we meant to get out of this?

God is moving in ways that he has not moved among the people of God for 400 years. God the Holy Spirit is acting in ways that he hasn't. Again from David Garland, if any Jews in Luke's day believed that the Spirit had somehow passed from the scene and been replaced by a distant echo of God's voice and the tradition and reason of scribes, the prominence of the Holy Spirit in Luke's infancy narrative contradicts that view Absolutely. If you interpreted the 400 years to being the Holy Spirit, it's passed from the scene, and now we just have the revelation that we got in time past and the best that the scribes can make of it, this narrative totally contradicts that view. That is Not the truth of the matter the truth of the matter is for God's own wise purposes There had been this quiet period of this kind of direct revelation for 400 years, but it is over now It's over now When a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit causes that person to think thoughts that they wouldn't have thought naturally.

Gives them the will and ability to do things that they wouldn't have wanted to do or had the ability to do naturally. Puts words in their mouths that they wouldn't have said naturally. This is what the prophets are doing. They are filled with the Holy Spirit and they're speaking the words of God that they wouldn't have spoken if God hadn't put those words in their mouths. This is what happens to Elizabeth.

The Holy Spirit fills her. And this is not a New Testament phenomenon. You can find the phrase filled with the Spirit in the Old Testament associated with artisans in Exodus who will be making the tabernacle and the altar and the lampstand and and and the things associated with the worship of God in the tabernacle, those artisans are said to be filled with the Spirit, associated with Joshua who is said to be filled with the Spirit, associated with prophets who are said to be filled with the Spirit. That's where these words of God are coming from. They are filled with the Spirit and given those words.

So that is verse 41. John the Baptist Leaps and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. Verses 42 through 45, final section. Then she, Elizabeth, spoke out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me?

That the mother of my Lord should come to me. For indeed as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped 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." In these verses we get Elizabeth's inspired utterance. So that fills in the blank if you're taking notes that way. Elizabeth's inspired utterance.

We should keep the beginning of this section coupled with the final phrase of the previous verse. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said so just because I've subdivided doesn't mean we should divide them this is flowing out of her being filled with the Holy Spirit then she spoke with a loud voice and said these things. There are many instances of this in scripture where the movement of the Holy Spirit creates a sort of urgent compulsion. Like the words can't get out of their mouth fast enough.

So you find this here but you find this a lot of places in scripture. The movement of the Holy Spirit creating a sort of urgent compulsion. For instance, in Jeremiah 20 verse 9, when Jeremiah was under so much pressure and persecution from those who would not hear his prophecies from the Lord, that Jeremiah resolved to stay silent. He was under so much pressure and persecution because of the things that God had put in his mouth to say that he said, I'm not saying anymore. Then we read this in Jeremiah 20 verse 9.

Jeremiah says this, but his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back and I could not. So different circumstances, but the same dynamic. Okay, so why is Elizabeth saying this in a loud voice? Because the Holy Spirit moving on her has created an urgent compulsion and these words are like a fire in her heart and she can't keep them in.

They can't get out of her mouth fast enough. What does Elizabeth say with this loud voice? She declares Mary to be blessed by God and also the baby in her womb, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be blessed by God. This sounds like Gabriel's greeting to Mary in last week's text. Look back at verse 28, the last part of verse 28.

Gabriel says, rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. It's the same words when you're saying the same words that an angel said, you're on the right track. Good job, Elizabeth. You are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now Elizabeth affirms that Gabriel said, blessed are you among women. She affirms that out of the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is just an overflow of her being filled with the Holy Spirit. She has this urgent of compulsion to agree with what Gabriel had said, to affirm what Gabriel had said. You're blessed among women.

Mary, you are blessed by God. Even among all the women who enjoy the blessing of God, God has blessed you. God is blessing you. Now what's the first promise made by God that he would send a savior. Yeah, Genesis 3.

It wasn't long. Right after sin, God promised to send a savior. The first promise God made that He would send the Savior as Genesis 3.15 that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Now imagine being the woman through whom the seed is given to defeat this mighty enemy. Now that is a blessing.

You are blessed among women, among all the women in human history who have enjoyed the blessing of God and there are many and he is blessed many of them greatly. Mary is blessed more because she is the woman through whom the seed who would crush this mighty enemy came to us. And Elizabeth declares that the baby in Mary's womb is blessed by God. Let's just review what Gabriel said in last week's text about this baby. Look back to verse 31.

I'm going to read 31 through 35. This is what Gabriel said about this baby. So wow is Elizabeth right about this baby being blessed by God. Gabriel says this starting in verse 31, and behold, You will conceive in your womb and bring forth the Son, and shall call His name Jesus." Again from Matthew chapter 1, Jesus just means Jehovah is salvation, God is salvation. That's the name the baby that.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore also that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Again, Elizabeth is just affirming the things that Gabriel has already said in summary form, the things that Gabriel has already said. This child is, this baby in your womb is blessed by God. Elizabeth has a supernatural sense of the truths that Gabriel said to Mary Elizabeth could only have a sense of this as a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit How would she have any idea of any of these things if she hadn't been filled with the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit has given Elizabeth insight that she could not possibly have naturally.

For with God, nothing will be impossible. That's what Gabriel said. Amen. With God, nothing will be impossible. Impossible things are happening in our text, only they're not impossible because with God nothing is impossible.

Then we get this sort of aside in the form of a question, A reflection on the great privilege for Elizabeth that this visit is. But why is this granted to me? Why me? That the mother of my Lord should come to me. Friends, this should blow our minds.

Elizabeth has been given the Holy Spirit insight that Mary's baby is Elizabeth's Lord. Mary, your baby is my Lord. Almost all of the commentaries go straight to Psalm 110 where the psalmist King David prophetically says this. Psalm 110, a Psalm of David, David prophetically says this, the Lord said to my Lord, so getting back to the Hebrew there, Jehovah said to my Elohim, meaning one name for God said to another name for God, Or to put it in David's words, one name for God said to another name for my God, my God, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Psalm 110 verse 1.

King David, the greatest king in Israel's history, bar none, find me a greater king than David, prophetically called this coming one Lord. The greatest king in Israel's history prophetically called this one who was to come Lord God, my God. He's actually prophetically giving us an inner-trinitarian conversation between God the Father, Jehovah, and God the Son, Elohim, Lord. The Lord said to my Lord, only they're different Hebrew words but both names for God. Now Elizabeth does the same with this baby in Mary's womb.

He is the coming one no longer. He is here entering into history in Mary's womb. David Garland says this. I did read other commentators. I just wanted to quote his.

I have the notes to prove it if you'd like to see them. David Garland says, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth acknowledges the lordship of the embryonic Jesus. She's acknowledging the Lordship of the embryonic Jesus. Her greeting is the first time that Lord is applied to Jesus in this gospel. A term that occurs 23 times in the birth narrative to refer to the God of Israel.

Now please follow, this is so important. So she's using a word that is going to get, using this word for the baby in Mary's womb that is used in the birth narrative, meaning chapters one through three, used 23 times just for God, the God of Israel, the God of the Old Testament. Same word. It highlights the continuity between Jesus and the Lord God of Israel, whose mighty acts of deliverance in Israel's past are recalled in Mary's hymn of praise. So we're coming to that text, what Mary praises God for.

So Mary is going to say, Lord this, Lord that, throughout Mary's song. And it's the same word that Elizabeth is using for the baby in her womb. This recognition also confirms that he is Lord from the inception of his life. So he's not born and then earning a spot. You get that.

Jesus isn't born and then wow he's fantastic. He should be Lord. He's Lord in the womb. So two things from what David Garland is saying. One, Jesus is God.

Lord is used for this baby in the womb And then Lord is used throughout the birth narrative, chapter one through three, just for the God of Israel. And they're used interchangeably and indiscriminately. They are the same. Jesus is God. And two, Jesus did not become Lord, Jesus is Lord.

From eternity past through eternity future, Jesus is the Word, the eternal Son of God. Now friends, let's make sure we don't miss this. Elizabeth has such a clear understanding, and this is marvelous, these are the things that the Jewish Experts will be so slow to understand or maybe won't even understand and Elizabeth here at the very beginning has such a clear Understanding of these things she is filled with the spirit indeed Elizabeth has such a clear understanding that this baby in Mary's womb is the promised Messiah that she feels unworthy of this visit from her relative. Wow you got some great you got some great relatives if you've ever felt unworthy of a visit from your relative. Oh, wow.

This relative's so great. I'm not worthy that you would come under my roof. No one's ever said that here. No one's ever felt that. But Elizabeth has such a clear understanding that this baby in her womb is the promised Messiah.

Thousands of years of prophecies saying a Savior's coming and now he's here in the womb of my relative. How can it be that you come here to me?" Matthew Henry says this. See, I told you I read another commentary. Matthew Henry. Those that are filled with the Holy Ghost have low thoughts of their own merit.

We shouldn't be surprised that Elizabeth wants to know how this great privilege would be afforded to someone like her. This is what it's like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It gives you low thoughts of your own merits and high thoughts of God's favors. This is what we see in Elizabeth. Low thoughts of Rome, Mary.

I'm not worthy of this visit and high thoughts of God's favor. God, you've done this for me? Matthew Henry continues, her son the Baptist, that cracks me up by the way doesn't even say John the Baptist He just calls him the Baptist her son the Baptist Spoke to the same purpose with this when he said Commas thou to me Matthew 3 14 so Fast forward in time Now the babies are out of the womb and all grown up and John's baptizing multitudes and Jesus comes and when Jesus comes to John the Baptist, John the Baptist says, no, no, no, you should be baptizing me. And I will add, I will add on top of what Matthew Henry says John the Baptist told everyone that he was unworthy to untie Jesus's sandals Elizabeth has this sentiment Now her son John the Baptist will have it later, both about the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally Elizabeth gives the Holy Spirit inspired explanation of what had just happened moments earlier.

Elizabeth says, Mary, when you greeted me, my baby John leaped for joy. When the sound waves of your greeting hit my eardrums in that instant my baby John his name is already known leaped for joy okay this is a happy spin There was movement when you came in. Wouldn't it be sweet if my baby was leaping in joy because of the visit? This is not that. This is the Holy Spirit inspired explanation of what was actually happening.

Now let's acknowledge that utterly unique things are happening here in this text. 99.999999999999% of the time when two pregnant women meet, those two babies in their mother's wombs couldn't be more oblivious to anything that's happening relative to each other. Total unawareness that they're inside a mother, that there's another mother pregnant with another baby and an awareness of that, like 99.999% of the time, none of that is going on. So what's happening in our text is utterly unique. I'm guessing that what happens in today's text had never happened before and has never happened since.

I can't prove it, but That's my guess. But this is the prophet that God is sending to prepare the way for his anointed savior in one womb and his anointed savior in the other womb. Robert Stein says this, another commentator. Robert Stein says this, at this point the two miraculously conceived children encounter each other. John the Baptist somehow was aware of Jesus and leaped for joy.

If you don't think Jesus was aware and that John was somehow ahead of Jesus, Wrong thinking. This is amazing. At this point the two miraculously conceived children encounter each other but they're both still in their mother's wombs. Somehow, someway, John the Baptist in the womb is filled with joy to be in the presence of Jesus the Christ. John the Baptist, Jesus the Christ, and John the Baptist is filled with joy to be in his presence.

John the Baptist can't contain himself. He leaps. That's not exaggeration. That's what's in this text. That's what Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, how she explains what has just happened.

Listen to what John the Baptist will say in John chapter 3. So again, both babies out of the womb, all grown up, and now John the Baptist says this in John chapter 3 verses 29 and 30. John the Baptist says, He who has the bride is the bridegroom. So his disciples had come to him and said, Jesus is baptizing more than we're baptizing. What are we going to do?

And John the Baptist tells them, He who has the bride is the bridegroom. I'm not the bridegroom. The bride's not mine, the bride's his. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled." The bridegroom is here. I am the friend of the bridegroom just to hear his voice, fulfills my joy. That is what he will say when they are all grown up. Just to look through that lens back on this passage today is wonderful. John the Baptist knew exactly who he was and John the Baptist knew exactly who he wasn't.

I'm just making the bride ready for the arrival and the voice of the bridegroom and as soon as I hear his voice my joy is fulfilled. He was delighted to just be the friend of the bridegroom and to decrease so that the bridegroom would increase, become nothing so that the bridegroom would become everything. Amen. A final declaration from Elizabeth that Mary is blessed by God. Verse 45, blessed is she who believed.

For there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. Mary, God sent Gabriel with these words to speak to you. You heard them and you believed them. You're blessed. J.C.

Ryle, take it away. J.C. Ryle says this, what is the whole history of God's saints in every age but a record of men and women who obtained a good report by faith. What is the simple story of all from able downwards but a narrative of redeemed sinners who believed and so were blessed? By faith they embraced the promises.

By faith they lived. By faith they walked. By faith they endured hardships. By faith they looked to an unseen Savior and good things yet to come. By faith they battled with the world, the flesh and the devil.

By faith they overcame and got safely home. Of this goodly company the Virgin Mary was proving herself one. No wonder that Elizabeth said, blessed is she that believed. Matthew Henry, take it away. Matthew Henry says this, believing souls are blessed souls.

This blessedness comes through faith. They are blessed who believe the Word of God, for that Word will not fail them. The infallible certainty of the promise is the undoubted felicity of those that build upon it and expect they're all from it. Get this last sentence. Here's the punch line from Matthew Henry.

The faithfulness of God is the blessedness of the faith of the saints. Why are you blessed if you believe? Because God's faithful! That's why you're blessed if you believe, because God's faithful and He'll fulfill every single thing that He says. The blessing of faith is the faithfulness of God.

It's nothing about the one who has the faith. It's everything about the God who has made promises and will fulfill them all. Mary says, Elizabeth, every single thing that God has said to you through the angel Gabriel is going to come to pass. It is impossible for God to lie. And God is always able to accomplish every one of his purposes.

You are blessed by God for believing his word. Your eyes are going to see it all come to pass. We need more friends like Elizabeth. We'll say, who will look us in the eye and say, everything God said to you is going to come to pass. There will be a fulfillment of everything that you heard.

Be that kind of friend to me, please. I need as many as I can get, don't you? We should be that kind of friend to each other. Look each other in the eyes and say, everything God has said is going to be fulfilled. Now, Mary did believe, Gabriel spoke and she believed, and she's acting on it here in this text.

But imagine what an encouragement this visit would have been. She didn't need it to believe, she had believed, but this fortified it all. Imagine what an encouragement Elizabeth's words to her would have been about John leaping in her womb for joy over the being in the presence of her Lord, that the baby in her womb was Elizabeth's Lord. Imagine how this prepared Mary for the hardships ahead. We're all we're in the The huzzah passages right now.

Huzzah, huzzah, every week an angel showing up to say it's a blessing, okay? The hardship passages are coming. So rejoice in these passages that are all great but hardships are coming and God is working in a way to fortify the characters in the story for the hardships that are coming. We should see this text through that lens. God is making Mary ready.

In a period of months, they are going to flee for their lives because the king is going to kill all the babies under a certain age to snuff out this child. This is just pages away. That's months away, but just pages away. Applications I'll give you four. Number one, we are meant to drink down the joy experienced by these two women at what God was accomplishing.

This text is a cup full of joy. Don't leave a single drop in that cup. Drink it down to the last drop. Leave an empty cup. These women are experiencing joy together at what God is accomplishing.

Now we could easily miss this because all this was accomplished thousands of years before we were ever born. We never knew of a time when they hadn't been accomplished. But this is at the end of 400 years of silence and now God is coming and keeping His promises. So they're not dull to it in the way that it's tempting for us to be dull to it. And I just want to say, shake off that dullness and drink this cup of joy down to the last drop.

God has sent His only beloved Son, His only begotten Son, who he loved from heaven to save sinners like you We've read most of us have read Matthew a bunch of times, Mark a bunch of times, Luke a bunch of times, John a bunch of times, and so these things don't wow us anymore. That's so wrong! God sent his only begotten son, who he loved from heaven, to die for sinners like you. We have to find a way to reclaim that, the wonder of that. 2.

Number 2. Let this passage awaken in you a desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. With the coming of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and the permanent ongoing indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers, we can think that this is that. This isn't that. Okay, so praise God for Acts chapter two, for the day of Pentecost, for the sending of the Holy Spirit to permanently indwell believers ongoing.

But this isn't going, but this isn't that. Did you know that the term filled with the Spirit occurs after Acts chapter 2 applied to those who are clearly already indwelled with the Holy Spirit. This is such an important point. The term filled with the Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, occurs after the day of Pentecost to those who are already permanently indwelled with the Holy Spirit. That means that there are levels to this.

Listen to Jesus in Luke 11 verse 13. He says this, If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? If you think what Jesus says in Luke 11 13 was made null and void by the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, you don't understand. What Jesus says there is still true.

There is more of the Holy Spirit for the asking and for the seeking. You can grieve the Spirit, you can quench the Spirit, You can ask for more of the Spirit and God has a predisposition to favorably answer those prayers. He'll give you more of the Holy Spirit. He will fill you with the Spirit. It's not the same thing as the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

We pray for revival. It's not going to happen without this. We don't have the strength. We don't have the wisdom, we don't have the anything. Revival is only going to happen if God fills his people with his Spirit for this.

Number two, let this passage awaken in you a desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why not ask? He told you ask. Number three, What God calls us to, God helps us with. That's what's happening with both Mary and Elizabeth.

He called them to something, but now He's put them together for their mutual upbuilding and making them ready, using them in each other's lives to make both of them ready for the hardships that are to come. When God calls, so reject the deist worldview where God drops off some instructions and then exits. That's not the world from this book. This book is true. That's not the world.

That's not reality God is calling us to things but God shows up to help us to fortify us to make us ready for the things that are ahead Have confidence in that He has called us to overwhelming things. Have you ever felt that? Of course you have. So, no sweat. No sweat.

The things he calls us to, he'll help us with. This is just another example, today's text, number four. Those who believe are blessed. Pretty simple. Those who believe are blessed.

That is specifically true and generally true what do I mean it is true in this very specific sense Romans 10 9 and 10 If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation I'm not saying this was the saving moment for Elizabeth but this is Elizabeth's confession okay she believed and she confessed this is my Lord in your womb. And now Paul after the fulfillment of these things through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ comes and says If you believe in your heart, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead, you will be saved. You'll be blessed with salvation. So it is true in this very specific sense, but it is also true in the general sense, in a much more broad sense.

In other words, God has said much more than just, believe in my son and be saved. He did say believe in my son to be saved and it is true but he said a lot more than that. God has said many many more things and we would be blessed by believing them all. It's true in the most general of senses. We'll be blessed by shaping our thinking according to all that he said.

We'll be blessed by acting on the things that he said. We'll be blessed by obeying the things that he said by the way, that's what it means to genuinely believe When you really believe it you shape your thinking to it when you really believe it you act on it when you really believe it You obey it You'll be blessed Spray God there's so much here every week, every week. So much more to say, but I thank you for the opportunity to at least touch on these things. Thank you for your word that is a deep well. Come back and have another full-length sermon.

The things that weren't said. Thank you God for the depth of the truth in your word. I pray that you would cause us to cling to them, to love them, to believe and be blessed. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.