My Soul Magnifies the Lord

When an angel appeared to Mary and said that she would soon be the mother of the Messiah.

She responded with prayers a song we call the Magnificat. They will not only be Mary's son but he will be Mary's Savior. No woman in the history of world could sing that song either before then or after that time because only Mary was given the unspeakable privilege of being the mother of our Savior. It's difficult to imagine how Mary felt that day, but soon gives us some insight into her reaction. Both her fear of the unknown, and her faith in her sovereign God welcome to this Lord's day addition of Renewing Your Mind in a sermon by Dr. RC Sproul different location where you can open your Bible you want to turn to Luke chapter 1, we see the wonder, and on the field. A teenage girl who wanted to magnify her Lord Scripture this morning still from the first chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke. I will be reading verse 46 through verse 56 and Mary said this I sold the magnify the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant, for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed, for he who was 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 and shown strength with his arm is scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts is put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly is filled the hungry with good things and the rich get sent away empty his helped his servant Israel, in 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 return to her house. This is Luke's record of this marvelous song of Mary known as the Magnificat inspired by the Holy Ghost and given to us for our instruction and for our edification for the moving of our souls to praise and adoration and may you hear these words to that it lets pray one of the things that's clear from the reading of this text is that Mary has a young Jewish girl did something that most Jewish girls did in her day, and that is she memorize Scripture we see strains of similarity between this song that she sings with the song of praise and thanksgiving that was rendered by Anna in the Old Testament when she was told of the impending birth of her son, Samuel L. Also, if you look closely at this song you will see that there are several references in the song to elements found in the song and the more we ingest Scripture and hide it in our hearts memorize become familiar with it, we will find that when we are praying again and again we will turn to the language of the word of God itself, and this is modeled for us in this marvelous him by Mary herself again. She is singing this in under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and its content reveals much about Mary, but also much about the character and the nature of God should begin by saying my soul doth magnify the Lord and mice. Thus, rejoice in God my Savior. One of the things that the Scripture warns about more than once is the danger dear friends of rendering to God. Mere lip service going through the motion rural worship where we say the word and we can pass with our mounts while our hearts remain far from him.

But what is noteworthy about this in is that Mary is not simply giving lip service to God. But this song of praise and adoration is welling up out of the depths of her being she says mice all magnifies the Lord, not that God could become at a greater or large than he already is. But what she says here what she says mice all magnifies in is that she is saying that my soul has been saturated by a sense of the divine and by his presence and by use mercy and so from the deepest part of my being. I want to exalted. That's what it means to magnify to lift God up in exultation. There's been much debate in recent years about the appropriate type of music that were used in worship and we even have a new vocabulary where we talk about praise music will indeed music should be filled with praise for God. If you want to see an example of your praise music example not. Of the 711 the same seven versus 11 time but praise music that is deep and rich in content, whose focus is on the majesty of God, then here we have an example of Holy Spirit inspired praise music for this young lady says my soul magnifies the Lord and mice spirit rejoices in God my Savior now she's not making a distinction between her soul and her spirit like some people would like to believe but what we have here is a common Hebrew form of poetry which is parallelism in this case.

Synonymous parallelism where the first line and the second line mean essentially the same thing. She says it wants my soul magnifies the Lord, she says that again. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Theologians who paid attention to the last couple of words of the second line the words my Savior does Mary mean by that St. Thomas Aquinas example believe that Mary could not of been sinless because here she confessed in this M her need of a Savior and that insight that St. Thomas had may be correct, but it's not a necessary inference from the tax because the word to say.

Even the word salvation in the Bible can mean something other than the ultimate salvation we have from the consequences of our sins, but any time God rescues his people and spares them from any calamity expresses a kind of salvation, and so the salvation that Mary may have in view here is simply the rescue from the calamity of being humiliated, being a forgotten person, thing a person of insignificance as she specifies in the the sense in which God is been merciful to her. However, though it's not necessarily so that she's referring to divine deliverance from sin. That idea is probably contained in the words that she's using here and if so what is she say just as the child is conceived in her womb will be called David's greater son and not only David's son but also David's Lord.

So the babe will not only be Mary's son but he will be Mary's Savior. No woman in the history of world can sing that song either before then or after that time because only Mary was given the unspeakable privilege of being the mother of our Savior, she speaks initially of her old being overwhelmed by the tenderness of God, for she says for he has regarded the lowly state of his mates are in former Christmas seasons are priests on the Magnificat. The knife pointed out that in that line, we have contained the original Cinderella story the Cinderella story that was not a fairytale was not a myth, but was sober reality and truth because God himself. Look at this late in her low estate. This is Mary's experience.

He looked at me he noticed me he sees me, and behold, henceforth all the generations of human history will call me blessed because I am blessed supremely blessed like no woman in human history has ever been blessed, for he 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.

Here in the Magnificat. Mary mentions specifically free attributes of God is mighty. He is holy and he is mercy the one who has recognized her is the Almighty one, the one who possesses all power on heaven and earth, the one who can create the universe by the sound of his voice, by the power of his command B and there is power that the angel Gabriel mentioned to Mary when she was confounded by his announcement. How can this be, since I know not of Mary will be because of the power of the most high God the Almighty will overshadow you for with him all things are possible.

He is the one who is mighty now notice this in passing that so often in our culture. When people speak of God, they do so really meaningless terms people speak about power a higher power of force greater than yourself. There's hardly any difference between that kind of language in the language of an animist practitioner who bows down and worships an idol made out of wood. You will never have to face the judgment of cosmic dust. But the God who is the God who has a name is not simply a power though he has all our he is he he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name again how beautiful is this description of the character of God. God Mary is saying is so holy, so transcendental he majestic that is very may is holy.

That's who he that's his identity is the holy one of Israel, not just mighty not just raw force brute power, but it's a holy power the holy might holy strength and his mercy is on those who fear don't miss the impact of those words.

The one from whom we receive mercy. 11 is the Almighty one the omnipotent, the holy one. How else could we exist in the presence of the holy one, except by mercy, but that mercy is not infinite. We hear the hams that speak of God's infinite mercy, infinite grace and I think that that's just our giving ourselves over to hyperbole were so amazed at the wideness of the extent of God's mercy and kindness and grace that we say so wonderful it's so great why it's infinite well if it's infinite has no bottom. God says I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy that he does not extend mercy to everyone. Not everyone receives the mercy of a forgiving God. Some in the final analysis, receive his justice without mercy will who is it who receives the mercy of God. Those who fear him. Now hear this, not in the sense of fear of being frightened like you would be by a burglar by a ghost, but it's fear, in the sense of reverence in the sense of in the sense of adoration. This is why we hear on Sunday morning to come here to worship God. And that's what worship is, is to show him reference that we have this this fear of the Lord. That is the beginning of wisdom.

It's the beginning of faith is the beginning of everything, and without it, there is no mercy in the godless are described in Scripture as people who have no fear of God. The world is filled with people who have no sense of reverence for God at all, no respect, no, no adoration, they could care less. Subtract they show their irreverence by how they use his name. How could somebody have any fear of God any reverence for God whatsoever and use his name as a curse word. But his mercy is on everyone who fears him from generation to generation. This is not something new.

This is not something unique in the life of Mary. This is something that goes on and on. From Adam to Noah to Abraham to Jacob. Isaac David the Jeremiah Peter to Paul Augustine and Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, to you and to me, generations come and go. They passed but throughout all the agents one thing is constant with the Lord is merciful to those who revere him is interesting that she mentions this in the middle of a him that is filled with reference and filled with adoration he has shown strength with his arm.

Here we have an image of God in human form in which his arm is a symbol of his strength. I think the funniest chapter in the Bible is chapter 11 of the book of numbers. You may remember that some of you who didn't memorize the Magnificat decided instead to memorize the 11th chapter of numbers. That's the occasion where Moses is very distraught because this multitude of people that he's leading the Exodus are now complaining and bellyaching day after day they want to go back to Egypt because now they miss their leaks and their garlic and their onions and all I have to eat every day. Is this manna that God supernaturally provides for them from heaven said this before they get sick and tired of the manna they had manna for breakfast manna for lunch, manna, preventive that they want to have a midnight snack. They had manna at midnight that they had roast manna fried manna manna sauté manna everything that could possibly do to alter the taste of this stuff. They tried and they couldn't take it anymore. They said let's go back to Egypt. Give us Pharaoh, at least under Pharaoh even welder slaves. We had onions, garlic, leaks and Moses wants to die. He said that I give birth to these people that I have to listen to this there crying in my tent give us meat to eat got survivor decries the people and they shall have meat to eat for one day. Not for a week, but for a whole month until it's coming out of their noses and becomes loathsome to be careful what you ask for when you price and guts as you want meet I'll give you mate until it's, nocturne so you don't want to look at it ever again.

And Moses is really upset and he said God, how are you gonna do are all our curves going to be killed supplied meat for a month.

All these people are you dry up the CD with the fish so we can feed them.

This is even more than you can do it and God answers a question with a question. He said Moses has the arm of the Lord waxed short Moses, who do you think you're talking to you think I'm a god with a weathered alarm is 97 pound weakling always kicked sand in my face has the arm of the Moses, you will see if what I say comes God is never weak, never in need. And in today's message from Dr. RC Sproul, we caught a glimpse of God's immense power to Mary's song of praise Magnificat taking the time to concentrate on God's perfection is so important in her day-to-day life and were able to do that today your on Renewing Your Mind. Each Sunday we returned to Dr. Spruill sermon series from the gospel of Luke, a series that they took him more than a year to complete our editorial team harvested the wisdom and insight from the entire sermon series and compiled it in a commentary, and that when you contact us today with a donation of any amount we will be glad to send you a digital download of this commentary from Luke's gospel with nearly 600 pages of readable practical insight and think you'll return to this resource for years to come. As I have.

I'm looking back in my bookshelf now and am testing this commentary along with the others said that winners put together so contact us today with your donation and we will send you this digital download. You can find this online@renewingyourmind.org lunar ministries exist to proclaim, teach, and defend the holiness of God to as many people as possible when we understand God's character we understand who we are and the only way to rightly understand God is to study his word. Your financial gifts to this ministry make it possible for us to continue producing teaching resources like this so were grateful next week Dr. Strobel again turned to look. Chapter 1 help us understand more of Mary's him.

The Magnificat I hope you make plans to join us next Sunday for Renewing Your Mind