The sermon 'A Fruitful Faith' by Peter Allison explores the contrasting responses of Zacharias and Mary to the angel Gabriel's announcements. Both were righteous and knowledgeable in Scriptures, but while Zacharias doubted Gabriel's message, Mary believed in the unprecedented miracle foretold to her. The sermon emphasizes Mary's faith, which hears, ponders, and desires to know more, ultimately resting in God's sovereign will. It highlights Mary's surrender to God's plan, sacrificing her body, reputation, and plans. The sermon also discusses faith's action as Mary visits Elizabeth, confirming the miraculous news. Elizabeth's Spirit-filled greeting echoes Gabriel's message, affirming Mary's faith. Mary's song draws from Old Testament themes, praising God's covenant faithfulness and mercy. The sermon concludes by illustrating how faith bears fruit through knowledge, humility, gratitude, and love for God and His people, as exemplified by Mary and Elizabeth.

Luke chapter 1. I'd like to read beginning at verse 39. 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. 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. Then she spoke out of 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. Then Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowliest state of His maidservant, and behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And 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 thrones and exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in the remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her house. Thus far the reading of God's Word. Let us hope in God's Word.

Almighty Heavenly Father, please open our hearts that we might hope in your Word this morning. Please accompany this word as it is opened to us with the power of your Holy Spirit that we might be sanctified and transformed this morning. That being instructed out of your Word, you would renew our strength, our joy and our trust in you. We ask this in Jesus name, amen. We have a contrast here between Two people.

Two visits by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel visited Zacharias and Gabriel visited Mary within the space of six months or so. There are some similarities. Both are righteous and godly people. Both Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth and Mary.

Both of them know the Scriptures. We can see that from the text of these two stories that we've been looking at up till now in this chapter. Both are Jews. One is a descendant from Aaron as a priest, priestly line, the other descended from Judah through David, but also related to Elizabeth in some way who is a descendant of Aaron. And to both of these saints in Israel, the angel Gabriel comes with the gospel, with a message of great and wonderful news.

But there the similarities end. Zacharias is old. He's well advanced in years and he's a teacher in Israel. Mary is young, very young, newly betrothed. She's certainly not a teacher, she's not old.

Zacharias doesn't believe Gabriel when he tells him something that has already happened. That something that has already happened would happen again. Sarah has already given birth to a son that she conceived in her old age when she is some 90 years or 89 years of age. This is a story that would have been well known to Zacharias as a teacher, as a priest in Israel. But he doesn't believe When Gabriel tells him something that has already happened, that has already happened would happen again.

But Mary does believe, Gabriel, when he tells her something would happen that has never happened before, that had never happened before in the history of the world, and never will happen ever again. That God would be made flesh, and would be conceived as a baby in her womb. And we saw last week how faith hears, How faith hears the word of God and believes. How faith thinks, pondering and meditating upon that word that has been heard. How thoroughly faith wants to know more.

It is those who delight in the works of the Lord and take pleasure in them that inquire into them, that study them. And so Mary wants to know more of Christ and His work and she asks about it. But we also saw that faith rests in the power and goodness of Christ. Mary rested in the sovereign beneficence, the sovereign goodness of God to her. God has said that she would conceive in her womb without ever knowing a man, that the power of the Most High would come upon her and the Holy Spirit would fill her.

And she responds with this complete voluntary and complete surrender of her will and of her body to the will of God. She says, let it be according to me as your word. Let it be to me according to your word. That is so completely opposite. The message of my body, my rights.

She surrendered her womb to the will of God. She presented her body a living sacrifice. She surrendered her reputation. Here she is told that she is going to conceive a child never having known a man. What are people going to think?

They're going to think all sorts of things. We know they did because Joseph, her own betrothed husband, with whom she wasn't yet dwelling, wanted to put her away because he thought she had committed fornication. Now, if Joseph thought that, how much more everybody else who didn't know her as well as he did? He had loved her. He wanted to marry her.

And yet he has a hard time believing Mary when she told him how she was pregnant, not because she had committed any fornication, but because the Holy Spirit had supernaturally conceived the Son of God in the flesh in her womb. He didn't believe her. He didn't believe her until an angel came and told him. So Mary here surrenders not only her body, her rights to this body, her womb, she surrenders her reputation, that of being an upright and righteous young girl to somebody who would be seen as promiscuous, conceiving a child outside of marriage. She surrendered her betrothed, remember Joseph wanted to put her away for fornication.

She surrendered her plans, whatever they might have been, as a young unmarried woman. She surrendered her plans to the will of God that she be a mother as a young unmarried woman. Her faith rested. She rested in the sovereign, beneficent will of God for her life, for her womb, for her body, for her reputation, for her plans. She rested in that.

But faith does more as we see in the text before us, the story of her visit to Elizabeth. Faith, faith acts. Faith acts. To Elizabeth. Faith acts.

Faith acts. Gabriel told Mary that Elizabeth was six months pregnant. Now she's a relative of Mary. Elizabeth is a relative of Mary. We're not told exactly how she's related.

Some sort of cousin, right? Everybody's a cousin in some sense. You can say your brothers and sisters are zero with order cousins You know first cousins aunts and uncles are first cousins and once removed and so on so Sometimes it said that she's a cousin, but it's a she's a relative We don't know exactly how she's related But she but she must have known surely that Elizabeth was barren was advanced in years had never had any children and Here the angel is telling her that this barren relative who is old well beyond childbearing years, is six months pregnant. So what does believing Mary do? Well she immediately, she makes haste to go visit Elizabeth.

Now we don't know exactly where Elizabeth is. We know that she is in the hill country of Judea. We know that she is a descendant of Aaron. She is in the priestly line. And some have speculated that she lived in, that They might have lived in Hebron.

There's a number of reasons for it. We don't know for sure, but it is a city that's in the hill country of Judea. It is a city that was given specifically to the priests. Remember The levitical priesthood, the sons of Aaron, did not receive an inheritance with all the tribes. Joseph's descendants got two inheritances, and the Levites' descendants of Levi did not get any but they were given cities Throughout the land of Israel that were theirs to dwell in so they could live because their their sole job was to was Dedicated to being teachers in Israel to being the keepers of the temple and to being priests.

And so that's they weren't to be, they weren't to be in business and so they weren't given land. But They were to live off of the tithes and the offerings of of Israel And but they were given these cities and he brawn is one of the cities that was given He brawn was where David was first king he brawn was where Abraham made an altar he brawn was where Abraham buried it where Sarah died and where he buried her. It's where Isaac dwelt there. So this patriarchs dwelt there in Hebron. David was made king there.

He ruled there when he became king over Egypt. So for a number of reasons, some have speculated that That might be where Elizabeth lived in Hebron in any event This was not a short distance from Nazareth down the Hebron is 80 miles and and the hill country would have been in the same general area. So she's making an 80-mile trip. It would have taken her several days to get there, probably. Mary Faith Axe.

When soon as she hears of this, that her relative is pregnant, she sets out. And this is what we see in faith in all of God's people. We see that Noah, in Hebrews 11, we read how Noah, he believed God and then he acted. He believed God and he built an ark. Abel believed God and he offered a sacrifice in accordance with what God had told him.

Abraham believed God and left the Ur of Chaldees. Sarah believed God, it says, and she was given power to conceive a child. Abraham believed God and he acted. He offered his son upon Mount Moriah as God had commanded him to do, believing that God was able to raise up from his body as good as dead the seed that he had promised. Joseph believed God and he acted.

He gave instructions about his bones that when the children of Israel left the land of Egypt, he knew that that was something that was still over a hundred years out in the future, that he gave instructions about his bones. He believed God and he acted. He wanted his bones to be taken out of the land of Egypt. Rahab believed God and she acted. She received the spies in peace.

And so Mary here, as the other saints of all, believes God and she acts. She acts. She goes to visit, she makes haste to visit her relative. She wants to see this wonderful work of God in Elizabeth's life. Elizabeth, the barren, the one advancing years, is expecting a baby.

Mary travels this great distance, probably several days, I don't know for sure. And she comes with haste to the city of Judah and enters the house of Zacharias And she greets Elizabeth. She greets Elizabeth. Notice Gabriel greets Mary when he, Hail Mary, rejoice. It's a greeting.

And Mary comes and she greets Elizabeth. And when she greets Elizabeth, the unborn John the Baptist leaps in his mother's womb. At her greeting, When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. She made a movement. And Elizabeth is then filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

And speaking in the Spirit, she repeats, interestingly, the statement of Gabriel verbatim, Blessed are you among women. That's what Gabriel came in his greeting of Mary had said that. Now Elizabeth wasn't there at the greeting of when Gabriel greeted Mary. That was 80 miles away. Elizabeth makes haste.

There was no phone call to come on ahead, but as soon as Mary comes in and greets Elizabeth, John the Baptist leaps in her womb, she is filled with the Holy Spirit and Speaking by the Spirit, she says with the exact same thing that Gabriel told her. Now wouldn't that be an amazing thing for Mary to hear? Blessed are you among women. That's exactly what Gabriel said. Blessed are you among women.

It's a completed action, something that's already happened. Mary is already blessed among women. Blessed is the fruit of your womb. This is a past tense. These verbs are in the sense that this is action that already has been completed.

Mary already is blessed among women and the fruit of her womb is blessed. So this is an interesting meeting here. We have Zacharias. Nothing is said of him, but this is his house. And she's there for three months, so I think it's very safe to believe and understand that he would have been there.

You have Mary, the mother of Jesus, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, you have John the Baptist responding in faith in the womb and you have Jesus also in the womb of Mary. All of these people in one house at one time. What a time of fellowship. And you can see the fellowship that Elizabeth and Mary have with each other. Elizabeth is proclaiming the Lord's blessing upon Mary.

Elizabeth herself, we are told, is a righteous, she's a godly woman. She knew the Scriptures. And what she said must have been a great confirmation and encouragement and blessing to Mary to hear her own relative telling her the same thing that Gabriel told her. Mary was just a young little, a young child, a young, sorry, a young lady. Some believe that by our standards she would have been a child, given the ages at which girls married in those days.

But Elizabeth also reveals that she knows the message of Gabriel by adding, blessed is the fruit of your womb. Mary isn't married and she's only just arrived. Think about it. She knew Mary as a righteous young lady. She knew...

She might have known, don't know if she had betrothed to Joseph, but they weren't married yet. And yet, the moment Mary comes into her house and greets her, she responds with, "'Blessed is the fruit of your womb.' Mary is just barely pregnant. This child is just only recently conceived and yet Elizabeth, speaking in the power of the Spirit, knows the message that Gabriel had told her. And she says, blessed is the fruit of your womb. And then she, as speaking in the Holy Spirit, she prophetically interprets that leaping of John the Baptist, her unborn son, in her womb as the fruit of the Spirit in her unborn son.

And she says, the babe that's within me leaped for joy. And it's her baby's movement in her womb that she is able to recognize who Mary is, the mother of the Christ child. See John, even at this point, Just as Gabriel said, John the Baptist has been filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. And he has in this work of the Holy Spirit in his life has borne fruit and he is now responding with joy. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.

And Elizabeth speaking in the Spirit says that this movement of her son in her womb was because of joy. This wasn't Just a random movement because he was reacting to some stimulus or just swimming around in the amniotic fluid. No, his movement was the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life. He leaped for joy. He leaped for joy.

The Holy Faith is a gift of God, it's not of ourselves. And God is able to give faith to whomever he will. The fact that we hear the gospel with hearing ears is because God supernaturally opens our ears that are deaf. He makes us alive. We who are dead in our sins.

That's the supernatural work of God's Holy Spirit. And so God is just as able to make this young boy, this unborn baby, here. Boy, this unborn baby, here, even though we would say his ears, maybe don't, and his mind are not developed like we would expect them to be able to hear words and understand them. God doesn't need our ears to make us hear, although He often uses them. God didn't need Lazarus' ears to work for Lazarus to be able to hear God's call and to come forth.

So John the Baptist doesn't need to have all the body, the physical body that we would normally expect a person to need would need to hear the gospel and believe God is able to make any one of those whom he has created in his image to hear the gospel and to believe and to exercise faith. And so Elizabeth then confirms Mary's faith. She says that believing Mary is blessed because there will be a fulfillment of the things the angel told her. This can be taken in two ways. Both ways are equally valid.

It could be translated, blessed is she who has believed because there shall be a fulfillment, or it could be blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment. The Greek allows either way. But Mary believed, and Elizabeth confirms Mary's faith here. Speaking in the Spirit, she describes Mary, whatever way you translate it, there's no ambiguity about the fact that Mary believed. Mary believed the Word of God.

So Elizabeth then confirms for us that Mary did believe. Mary's response was a response of faith. And in Mary then in response to this greeting of Elizabeth, to this fellowship, to this encouragement, Something that Elizabeth pours out upon her, Mary responds with her song of faith And she testifies to the Lord's faithfulness. In the theme and some of the language, this is very similar to Hannah and her song. There is praise to God for what He has done for her personally.

Verses 46-48. She praises God for His covenant mercy from generation to generation in verses 50-53. She expresses faith in God's mercy to past and future generations of His covenant people in the last two verses. She says, She says, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Isn't that very similar to What our catechism says is the chief end of man.

Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And that's exactly what she says. My soul magnifies, my soul declares the greatness of God. My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. This is our chief duty to do these things, to express these things, and to do these things.

In this psalm, in her psalm here, she reveals a very deep and thorough knowledge of the Old Testament and an understanding of what it meant, what the Old Testament meant. My soul magnifies the Lord. Psalm 103 says, bless the Lord, oh my soul. Psalm 34 talks about my soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.'" she is faithfully quoting a theme right out of the Psalms.

She says, God, my Savior. God is called the God of our salvation or the rock of our salvation in Deuteronomy 32 in Moses' song he calls God the rock of our salvation. In Psalm 24 and Psalm 95 he is called the God of our salvation. Habakkuk 3 says, I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will enjoy in the God of my salvation. And so in saying these things she is quoting, she is reciting the scriptures, God's promises, and what the men and women of faith have said before her.

God has exalted her from her low estate. He who is mighty has done great things for her. Zephaniah 3 says, Jehovah your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, he will exalt over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love, he will exalt over you with loud singing. God, she says, he is mighty, he's done great things for me. He has regarded the lowly estate of his maidservant.

And then she speaks of God's covenant mercy from generation to generation showing mercy to his people But defeating his enemies bringing down the hottie and so she speaks then of this God's covenant relationship His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. She recounts His covenant faithfulness. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has pulled down the mighty from their thrones.

You can imagine all of the narratives of God doing this in the history of His covenant relationship with Israel. Like Sennacherib, This haughty man who boasted against the Lord, who said, who is the Lord that he should deliver you from me? Look at all the people, all these nations and cities that I've pulverized in the dust. They're licking the dust off my feet. Who is your God?

God answered him. In his haughtiness, he brought him low and destroyed his army in one night. 185, 000 soldiers and he had to go back to his capital in ignomy. All in ignomy. He has pulled down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. She also expresses faith in God's mercy to past and future generations of his covenant people. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers. Psalm 98, Isaiah 41, Micah 7 all make the connection between the promises that God made to Abraham and God's redemptive work on behalf of his people. That God's promises to Abraham were that he would redeem to himself a people who were zealous for his name, a peculiar people.

And That is exactly what Paul tells the Galatians. That we who are of faith are heirs of the promises that God made to Abraham. If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. This is what Mary is expressing here. He has helped his servant Israel, that's his covenant people, in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever.

She's realizing that what is happening in front of her, that what is happening to Elizabeth with the conception of John the Baptist who would be the forerunner of Christ, the herald of Christ, and what the Lord is doing within her is the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham that he spoke to Abraham and to his seed forever, to redeem them, to show them his mercy, to be a God to Abraham and to his seed. She praises the Lord for His covenant faithfulness to future generations, to Abraham and his seed forever. There is no end to this covenant. With eyes of faith she is looking forward and praising God for what he would do. Now how does Mary view herself?

How does she view herself? She says that she, in her song, she says that he has regarded the lowest state of his maidservant and henceforth all generations will call me blessed. She said that of herself because that's what the angel Gabriel had told her. Well, she views herself as a sinner. She says first that my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

If she was sinless, she wouldn't need a Savior. God wouldn't be her Savior, she wouldn't need to be saved. Jesus said, He came not to save those who are well, but those who are sick. Those are the people that need a physician. So Mary is acknowledging here that she's a sinner.

She needs a Savior. She says that all generations will call her blessed. In other words, that they would recognize that God has blessed her. She never suggests that others would invoke her blessing. She doesn't say all generations will ask me to bless them.

She says all generations will recognize that God has blessed me. And there's a big difference. It's quite the opposite. And So while we do not see Mary as sinless, she is not a perpetual virgin, and she is in no way a mediator or anyone that we ought to pray to, yet at the same time the message of Gabriel to her from God is that she was favored, highly favored, and she is Blessed among women she is exalted God did pour out his favor and bless her In making her the mother of Jesus Now faith faith bears fruit Now, faith bears fruit. Faith acts and that's the fruit of faith, but we see faith bears fruit.

Look at Elizabeth's song, her greeting of Mary. Faith bears fruit first in that it has knowledge. She knows what happened to Mary through the Holy Spirit. She knows that Mary is blessed among women, that she knows that Mary is expecting, and that she's pregnant, and that the fruit of her womb is blessed. But she also has great humility.

She has a great sense of her own unworthiness that says, Lord, why was I made to see? Why was I made to be invited to your feast and to sit down with you? Why? There was nothing in me that was worthy of this. Lord, why was I made to see?

She asks, why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Mary, her much younger relative, has been highly favored to be the mother of God in the flesh. And she honors Mary, calling her the mother of my Lord. There is here no inward jealousy of any sort that Mary would be the mother of the Christ child and she won't be. Rather there is humility.

There is humility that says, why was I even allowed to receive a visit from you? Why would the mother of my Lord even come into my house? Faith has that fruit of humility. Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to see?

Why were my eyes open? Why have you adopted me as your child? There's nothing in me that's worthy of that. There's nothing in me that is worthy of any of your goodness. This is, this sense of her own unworthiness is right in front of her.

She is, thirdly, she is grateful. The fruit of faith is a gratitude of what the Lord has done and is doing. And the fruit of faith also brings forth a love. A love for God and a love for His people. Mary expresses her love to the Lord.

My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. This is the song of a woman who loves the Lord, who is grateful for what the Lord has done for her. This is the song of somebody who desires fellowship with the Lord who rejoices in the Lord. And Mary stays for three months with Elizabeth enjoying this sweet and wonderful fellowship that these two saints had with each other, rejoicing in what the Lord was doing.

Three months, Isn't that a wonderful visit? For three months they lived together. They had fellowship daily basis as they must have continued to encourage each other, to rejoice in the Lord, to magnify the Lord together, to demonstrate their love to the Lord and their affection and their love for each other. Mary didn't just come and stay a couple days. Three months she stayed with Elizabeth.

All the way through basically the rest of her pregnancy. She would have only left about the time that Mary would have given birth. She stayed with, they stayed together. They enjoyed the sweet fellowship of those who are sisters in the flesh and in Jesus Christ. Faith bears fruit and one of those fruits is a love of God's people.

A love of one another. We can't love the Lord, We can't say we love the Lord if we don't love one another and love his people. So we see then the fruit of the faith that God gave to Mary and to Elizabeth. A knowledge, a humility, a gratitude, and a deep love and a rejoicing of God, their Lord, and in one another. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this beautiful picture of the fruit of saving faith. A faith that believes what you have said is true, even if every other person upon the face of the earth is saying something else. Your word is true. And when you give saving faith, it believes. And it wants to know more of you.

And it ponders and meditates upon that which is true, that which is lovely, that which is beautiful. It thinks about your wonderful works to the children of men. And it rests in you, surrendering all that we have, our name, our reputation, and even our very bodies, presenting them as a living sacrifice to you. And it brings forth fruit, the fruit of your spirit, Lord, it isn't our work, but it is your work in us, and it is beautiful because it is your work. To bring, to add to our faith virtue and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge perseverance and self-control and brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, a love.

Father, this is the fruit of saving faith. And we look, Lord, we inspect ourselves. We would look to see for Your fruit in us. We cry out to You this morning, Lord, that we might be fruitful, that we might have a humility, a resting in you, a knowledge of your word, and a deep and abiding love for you and for one another that we might rejoice, that we might in you and delight in communion with you and look forward to it, oh Father how often our heart is cold and we ask that you would warm our heart to praise you, and that you would strengthen our love for you and for one another. We ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen.