In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the story of the vineyard in Isaiah chapter 5, where God planted a vineyard that produced wild grapes despite His efforts. The speaker draws a parallel between this vineyard and the people of Jerusalem and Judea, emphasizing that there is nothing more that Jesus could do for us as He has already sacrificed His life on the cross. The speaker then discusses the importance of recognizing the visitation of God in our lives and the consequences of not doing so, using the example of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. The sermon concludes with a call to seek the Lord for continued visitations in order to live a holy and godly life.

Hello, welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, Ephrata, Pennsylvania, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Greetings to all of you. Blessed day and opportunity to gather together again this morning to involve ourselves in the worship of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, fellowship of the saints, and all the wonderful things that do happen to us. Thank you so much to the Dodd family for just the open sharing of what God has done in your life. Those stories, those testimonies don't grow old. I thank God for them and I would sure like to see many more, brother, join your ranks out of a life of drugs and alcohol to a life of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and to see what God has done in your family. May your number increase. Amen. Well, praise God for the beautiful fall weather God has given us and truly the season has changed and we are ready for it, I trust. Let us turn our Bibles in Luke chapter 19 for our text. Give you a little bit of the background here. It's the triumphant entry of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to Jerusalem to die. Near the end of his life, his earthly life, the end of his three and a half year ministry, he worked hard and long and influenced thousands of people with his message about his time. He comes to the Mount of Olives. There's a crowd of people around him. He had some dialogues with people just prior to this, but this time they're in a festive mood that he's going as if he would be going into Jerusalem to be king. Well, he was, but not exactly how they thought, many of them. So they cast their clothes in his path. He rode on the coat of an ass, just a little donkey that nobody had ever ridden on. And he was going along and he came over the crest of the hill. And there before him lay the majestic city of Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem was no ordinary city. It had been the center of Israeli worship and social life for many, many years. Going all the way back to King David, when it seems like the city was established there and then his son Solomon built the magnificent temple. And from that day on, Jerusalem seemed to be the center of the nation of Israel and its worship. Of course, you know the acute apostasy, the falling away, bringing idols into the temple and setting them up by Manasseh and a whole bunch of others, Azariah. And then you'd have men that would clean them out and they'd bring them back again and that brought about the captivity, the Babylonian captivity. Israel was split into two nations. We have Israel in the north, Judah in the south. Jerusalem was the head of Judah. Well, they spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity and then came back. And you know the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. The wall was built and finally again the temple was rebuilt. And we have it being majorly improved and remodeled by Herod. And here we have that. That's the setting that Jesus looked at as he looked out across that city. All of its history, all of its knowledge that the Son of God would have had when he looked at it. Very, very different from man's perspective because he knew all of the history. He was around all that time. And so, as he views it, his heart breaks. The rest of the people were rejoicing. The rest of the people thought they were going to the crowning king maybe. It seems like they had that in mind. But not our Lord Jesus Christ. His heart breaks. And if we could start reading verse 41. When he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Saying, if thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belonged under thy peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. For the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, thy children within thee. And they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. The title of my message is, A Visitation from God. And I'm going to use this text as an example of a marvelous visitation that God had made for the life of Christ. God himself come down from heaven on earth to visit humanity with a visitation that was unprecedented in all of human history. If thou would have known in this thy day, the things which belonged under thy peace, but now they are hidden from thy eyes. The day will come when they're going to lay you even with the ground, and your children with you. And they'll cast a trench out around you, and hedge you in, keep you in, because thou knewest not the day of thy visitation. And I'll share with you where I'm going with this this morning. We're going to use the example in the scripture of this great visitation of God. But we always have one to keep in mind as we go through the message. What about us? What about our time? What about Lancaster County? What about Africa Christian Fellowship? What about the United States of America? Have we known the day of our visitation that God has so graciously given us? Or are they hidden from our eyes? And will the day come when Jesus will weep over us? And he will say, thou knowest not the day of thy visitation. I was there, and I brought you all of this. But you didn't hear me. You didn't see me. It was hidden from your eyes, because, as Matthew says, their eyes they have closed, lest seeing with their eyes, hearing with the ear, they should believe and be converted. That didn't happen to most of Israel. He wept over the city we have here. Now, he knew the conditions in the temple down there. I would tend to believe that he had his all-seeing eye and his heart within himself, even though he was a human being. But if not, he had already known the departure from the law of God down in the city of Jerusalem in the temple and some of the things were going on. And after he goes through this scene, we have him going down the hill and entering into the city of Jerusalem. And when he got into the temple here, they were buying and selling, and the money changers were there, and they had their tables set up, and they were exchanging monies and buying and selling animals, you know, buying from the shepherds coming in in droves and putting them in fences, and maybe even inside the temple in box stalls and what have you, and then selling them to the people who wanted to make offering and sacrifice for their sins. And there was straw and manure all over the place. And this was a house of prayer. This was the house of God. And I can imagine that as he looked over the entire scene, he saw that scene, but he saw the scene much greater than that. He saw the scene of 400 years of not being a prophet. He saw the departure from God. He saw that men did not love God and did not serve God, and even though the mighty works that he had done in the three and a half years of ministry, they were not regarding it, they were not taking it to heart for the most people. He had talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and everybody just walked away and ugh on the whole thing, and just didn't understand, nor did they seek to understand what it was all about. And that's probably what he had seen that caused his heart to break. He knew he was going to die for the people. He knew they were going to scream and yell at him, crucify him, crucify him. Give us Barabbas and the desire rather to have a robber released than to have the Son of God reign among them and continue to do good like he had done. That's the scene I believe that he saw when he spoke these precious words. Also in Luke chapter 13 verse 34, and we have it also in Mark and Matthew I believe, when he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stolest them that are sent unto thee, how often I would have taken you under my wings like a hen does her brood, but you would not. A verse that goes parallel with this one and is quoted by some of the other men as the verse also that he said in Matthew especially. It's quoted as in the triumphant entry that he would have said it there too. I want to go back and just show you some of the things that happened here in those three and a half years and we can turn back to Matthew chapter 11. We have the story there of Capernaum. And you know the city of Capernaum was no ordinary city. In fact, there were probably more miracles done in Capernaum than any of the other cities in Judea and in Galilee. In Matthew chapter 11 verse 23 it says, And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Capernaum, somehow we deduct from this real quickly that judgment will be according to opportunity and knowledge that we have rather than the actual extent of wickedness committed. Because we know that Sodom and Gomorrah are used in the example throughout the word of God of the acute wickedness that was accomplished, that was done there. We know the story of when the men of God came to visit Lot and they wanted to stay there and how the men came up on the porch and tried to break down the door and God had to smite them with blindness and all that. We know the terrible sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet the Lord Jesus looks at a little village town here called Capernaum where so many miracles were done that He tells them that it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for thee, Capernaum. And the reason was, is because it was in that city that so many people had heard Him preach that city was so majorly affected by the preaching of the word of God that when He went to Simon Peter's mother's house to heal her of her sickness the whole city came outside on the porch or to the door of the place. And they were after Him so much. They had so blazed abroad the effects of some of the miracles that were done. Unclean spirits were driven out. A whole host of them. He preached into the synagogues. A leper was cleansed in Capernaum. The noble woman's son was healed. The centurion came to search Him out. It seems like it was the city where Jesus lived for quite a bit of His time throughout His ministry. And it says when He left there and went to the next village they came out of every quarter to search Him. So the knowledge of what He had done and the things that happened in Capernaum and the surrounding area there as He walked around there the tremendous amount of evil spirits that were driven out and all the healings and all the things that were done The people were so knowledgeable. They had so clearly got a picture of this man and what he was able to do and the power of God being upon him. And yet in the end of the road at the end of His ministry they drove Him out of there. He couldn't even do much in that area anymore because they had become so unbelieving and so agnostic against Him and antagonistic against Him. And so He says that word concerning Capernaum and then just before that He also had said Woe unto thee Chorazin! Woe unto thee Bethsaida! For it had, if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon and that would have been in the Syrian country up by Lebanon now they would have repented long time ago and sat clothed in ashes. But I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than at the day of judgment. Another parable that we see that comes right after our text back in Luke chapter 19 over in chapter 20 we have the parable of the wicked husband I sent my servant and they wouldn't hear him but would thrust him out and then I sent another servant and did the same thing to him and maybe the third one but finally at the end of it all he said I will send my son and he sent his only son and thought maybe they'll reverence him but when he came close there and to check out on how things were going in the vineyard because he owned the vineyard and he had lent it out to them and wanted them to dress and keep it and bear forth fruit but they wouldn't do it they said come this is the heir let's rise and kill him and that's exactly what was happening as he stood on the Mount of Olives he saw all of that and about to happen that it was time for him to give his life and no man would stand with him no man went to the cross and comforted him and stood with him and said I'm with you he was all alone after all that he had done and that is an amazing amazing thing oh if thou wouldest known in this thy day the things which belonged in the thy peace but now they are hid from your eyes the provisions that God made from eternity past to come down in this vineyard here on earth and to provide eternal salvation and the blessing of God that was given to that community at that time and yet I have to say I'm not sure we don't have a greater opportunity with the Holy Ghost than what they did with the Lord Jesus in person I would say it's very possible that if we would have listened in this our day the things which belong to our peace may be a greater responsibility and a greater accountability than what they had there seeing the miracles that he did but nevertheless with all that they saw and all that was given him and here he humbled himself from the glories of heaven and came down in this sin cursed earth in the form of a man and suffered like a man and died like a man and was thirsty and hungry like a man and was tired and weary like a man and he did the whole thing for 33 years in order to bring them God down into their hearts and let them see the power of God and the miracles of God and the blessings of God and all that would be theirs but they shut their eyes and mocked him and crucified him and hung him on a cross to die just as if nothing that he had done was right or good and he never made a mistake and he never did ill to any man how can those things be? that is the hardness of the human heart we realize in 1 Corinthians 2 we have an interesting verse there often misquoted in my past as I remember it 1 Corinthians 2 verse 4 and my speech and preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power Paul now preaching in the power of the New Testament spirit of God being upon him in the church age verse 5 he says that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come do not but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory which none of the princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory the mystery was hid from their eyes and we believe some of that was by design in the sovereign ways of God but then in verse 9 he says but as it is written I have not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him he's saying here that mankind in general they have no idea I have not seen nor ear heard what the Lord has prepared for those that love him they don't have a clue and I think many of you would have to say when you were in the world and you were following the lust of your flesh and you had those bad habits and you were following after sin and ungodliness many times we have to say we had no clue did we what God would have prepared for us that love him I had to I was so amazed in Bolivia we went around and visited a number of folks and trying to get counsel there for their heart concerning the church and we went into a home where the father is not with the church he attends but he's not with the church and I think the mother is more so and some of the girls but here was a young man in the middle of that and he sat there on a chair outside under the tree in the middle of the day and we started to talk about church life and that young man began to share some of the things that God has done and since he has heard the gospel in a powerful way and the effect that it has in his life giving him victory in power over sin he said I never would have dreamed anything like this would have been possible and he just overflowed from his heart on the things he has seen the things he has laid hold of the things he has come to grips with and when we finished our conversation there and the brother who was with me from Manitoba I think it was, we drove out the lane I looked over at him and I said where do you get men like that? where does those kind come from? but that's what the scripture is teaching I have not seen nor heard what the Lord has promised to them that love Him but the Spirit has revealed it unto them even to the deep things of God they are there, they are available they are for you and I and the provisions of having power and victory over sin and over evil habits and over drugs and alcohol and over immorality all these things God has provided and that men should live a holy life and a godly life and freedom from sin it's all provided it's all made available through Calvary and yet for the most part of humanity they have shut their eyes and shut their ears and will not hear the message of the truth of the gospel nor press into it like the Bible says the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force it's those that press into it like the young man that we visited it's those that say this is real this is what I want and I believe it and he embraced it and it's available for anyone else just like that God has revealed them unto even the deep things of God by his spirit for the spirit searches all things yea the deep things of God sometimes I wonder what Jesus would say as I mentioned before where I'm going I just wonder what God would say to Lancaster County knowing the amount of tent meetings the amount of revival preachers in my lifetime that have criss-crossed this county up and down and preached the things that we preached over the last decades and I know it is fizzling out and I know it's not what it once was and I know there is a decline in all of it I know that I feel that I've lived here except for four years of my life I've lived here my entire life right in the center of out of the county for most of my life and yet I understand there is this decline but what would the Lord Jesus say if he would come over the crest of the Ephrata Mountain and he would look out over the county what would his word be if thou would have known in this day the things which belong in thy peace if you'd have any idea Lancaster County what I would have had for you young people, middle aged people older people alike if you'd had any idea the provisions in the storehouse of grace and power would have been available to you if only you would have come to me and asked for it if only you would have sought it with all your heart but you wouldn't do it and that's what I see so much with the burden of the church with the burden of the youth with the burden of those that are in materialism and looking and running after money and after things and fancy cars and certain clothes and wanting to be on the in crowd with the rest of the youth of the county and run with the spirit of the world and the spirit of the age if thou would have known in this day that which belongs unto thy peace but now they are hidden from your eyes because you diverted your attention and your focus on lesser things of life may God help us and the same could be said for the entire United States I tremble at the decisions that are being made against God against the word of God and all of those things I have to think of the word of God and how the word of God I have a bit of Bolivia on my mind and I was just moved again and those poor Mennonite people the old colony Mennonite people that we got down there in the midst of the situation there and once again I heard a voice that I heard a bit in my childhood although it's much worse in saying that they don't want the people to read the word of God because they fear that they'll learn more than the preachers and there they are illiterate and while we were having the men's retreat about 34 men up in a mountain retreat place where we had gathered there there was a man there from Paraguay he had never been in any of the meetings before and he came from some kind of a colony down in Paraguay a very similar one of Russian Mennonite background likewise and his wife was so jealous she was along also but she had to stay back at Campo Chihuahua there in the colony while he went along to the men's retreat and she just wished somehow she would get to hear the things that he was hearing that's the kind of hunger they had for the things of God and when it came to the weekend we preached Sunday morning and preached Sunday evening therefore there was a bunch of us preachers there from Canada and myself from the United States and we all had a message about two of us on Sunday morning and two on Sunday evening and she got to drink all that in and she said I just couldn't believe it probably the first time in her life she heard the message of the gospel preached in the low German language out of the scriptures you know brother David they have the Bibles that Dara and I have a low German Bible that was printed in 2003 just 2003 or 2004 somebody translated the Bible into the low German language but the colonies are refusing them because oh it has to be the high German and the people don't understand it because traditionally it's always been so but now it's available in a low German language and it's even kind of a poor translation but all of the men on Sunday used that book to translate and the message was preached right straight out of that Bible out of the low German language and this lady sat there and heard the word of God being preached in a language for perhaps the first time in her life that she could understand and it was so absolutely precious to her and I perhaps haven't made a habit of it often but you know I think it's right sometimes to hold the Bible close to us and to kiss it to be able to have the word of God translated in our own language I don't want to take too much attention away from the person of Christ but you know in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and we have the Bible accurately translated from the Greek and from the Hebrew we have a portion of God in our very midst and I think it's right for us to reverence it and handle it carefully I just don't understand all the Bibles that accumulate here many times in meetings or what have you you go back in the lost and found and there may be 8 Bibles scattered on the table that people left behind you know the word of God is so common we have so much of it we have so many copies of it that we can let them lay here and there and we never even notice the difference not so in Russia in years going by when there was only one or two Bibles for an entire congregation during the dark years of Stalin's regime and Khrushchev's and so on when they just didn't have enough of Bibles to each home to have one I can't imagine what that would be like compared to how we have it but we never forget again the message of the Lord Jesus and how he weeps over the conditions of how men take it so nonchalantly and say to if thou would have known in this day the things that would have belonged to your power and your peace and your satisfaction if you only would have embraced that but now they are hidden from your eyes because you take it so nonchalantly you take it so lightly you don't even care about it we had to see down in Bolivia some of you may have heard I just mentioned I think in closing in one of our prayer meetings some of the terrible atrocities that have been happening there but they had a man there in one of the colonies that they accused of a heinous crime that was being committed in the police colony and there were a lot of things going on just prior to my coming down there and they took a man and they hung him they tied his hands behind his back wanting him to confess to the crime that supposedly he had done and then they hung him up by the hands and his feet in the back he only lasted a couple of days hanging there like that and then his shoulders broke and finally somebody took him down and took him to the hospital but a day later he passed away feeling they had the right to punish him and what I understand is the man had not done it at all and couldn't confess that he had done the crime that he was being accused of but they thought he was guilty and therefore were trying to force a confession out of him seven other men were put into a prison cell again for incredible atrocities and unbelievable crimes that they had committed against some of the young ladies and children there in the colony and there they are and there's a, somebody already has it on the internet and has them trying to justify themselves and saying they didn't do it and all those kind of things oh I think and in light of brother Dave's message here on Wednesday night you know on the beautiful beginning of the Anabaptist movement in 1525 there in Zurich, Switzerland and they are direct descendants of it, direct descendants of that movement down through Russia and then into Paraguay and into Bolivia or Mexico and Bolivia or Canada, Mexico and Bolivia, however their ancestry has come and yet these people are so devoid of the gospel, so devoid of the truth of God's word and I'm sure that the Lord Jesus looking at this situation would weep over them today and say likewise if thou would have known in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from their eyes you didn't hear the day of your visitation I have to look at let's just look briefly at Luke chapter 1, we have the song here of Zacharias Zacharias was the father and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist and Zacharias after his mouth opened up and he declared his name is John you know he was dumb there for a time and could not speak and when he declared that his name is John which the angel had revealed to him who he was supposed to be, a voice crying in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord then in Luke chapter 1 verse 30 67-75 we have the first stanza as I would give it of the song and then the second one in 76-79 and here's what it says 67 and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost prophesied saying blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people and this is of course the view somewhat prophetic of what would happen Mary is now already pregnant with the Lord yes John the Baptist is born and Mary is already pregnant with the Lord Jesus Christ and they're looking at this whole thing of what should happen in the next 33 years with the Lord Jesus Christ being born and growing up as he did and then becoming the sin sacrifice and sin offering for the people, it takes the whole thing in view there and the song of Zacharias is blessed being the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people John the Baptist grew up there and became a voice in the wilderness and preaching repentance to the people that people should turn from their sin, like I said there was no prophet for 400 years and here comes John the Baptist and he stands up and he was full of the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb and he begins to preach the truth to these people who had so drifted so far away from God and the loving heart of God was now in the just allowing John to be a forerunner and then he was going to bring his only son like the parable the wicked husbandman says in Luke chapter 20, he was now going to bring his only son down there and plead with them one more time if perhaps that they might listen and that's the setting here that he gives it so it's part prophecy of what should happen in the next 30 years and part of it is just already beginning to happen that God is already moving upon the people verse 69, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of a servant David I appreciate that the horn of salvation there it's not horns but horn and you look at it singular and you think of a great big horn of salvation that was a tremendous protection to like a rhinoceros or various other animals who had on their nose or on their head a huge horn that even lions I think would have had to fear because they were able to disembow practically any wild animal that would come against them if they would be able to hook them on that horn but anyway it was a big and strong and mighty horn when we think of some of those animals who had that and here he calls it a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David showing the promises that had come down from the Old Testament through David and he calls it the horn of salvation the other thing we have we have four horns at the four corners of the altar outside in the in the courtyard there of the temple and these were a place of mercy where men could go and lay hold of the horns of the altar and have mercy from God as they pled concerning a mistake they had made or a sin that they may have committed there was mercy there so we have that depicted here in this verse verse 70 and he spake by the mouth of his holy prophet as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began all prophets had prophesied in one way or another of the coming Messiah you can go back through them and check them out and study them you will find that the prophets all prophesied of the coming of the Lord in one way or another the coming Messiah verse 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us now ultimately I realize that will deliver them from the gentile nations out around them that will come against them to try to annihilate them in the end times but some think that this is spoken more of the enemy to the soul, the enemy in spiritual battles and warfare, the enemy of the flesh and the power of God as I preached beforehand some minutes ago here on what is available for the Christian and it says here that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, everything that is against us in a spiritual manner there is salvation available, the horn of salvation is strong and mighty and able to deliver us from that then he says in 72 to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant and I think that has to do with the covenant promised to Abraham way back in Isaac shall thy seed be called it became a covenant of faith rather than a covenant of lineage, earthly lineage and we have that reaching us all down to our very time our very day that we can be children of Abraham today, this is the promise of God, this is what God has made available for us 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 goes along with the children's class so beautifully concerning fear, but the promises of God in this song given to Zechariah is that we should be delivered from our enemies and again I want you to think of it especially as spiritual, although we have, even though as we had on Wednesday night and saw how many of our forefathers died for their faith hundreds of years ago there and we have not had to face that in the same way, yet even there we see it in a literal imprisonment and death of the Anabaptist forefathers they served him without fear one of the things that you see in the martyr's mirror so beautiful is the boldness that they had to suffer and gladly were able to give their lives and take the stake voluntarily without crying and screaming and all those things because God had given them the power to do it without fear as it promises us here in the word of God we can serve him without fear and when we face some of the things as we look into the future and we talk about the Antichrist system and some of their plans with us and what to do with us and those kind of things I know it strikes fear sometimes a bit in a father or mother especially those of you who are bringing children into the world or just getting married and all that and you wonder what shall come in my day with this whole situation that is facing us but I am here to tell you that the Lord Jesus still has promised that we are able to serve him without fear sufficient under the days the evil thereof we don't have to worry about those things and we believe when the time comes grace will be given to us to walk through those days according to his will in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life this is the first stanza we have on the prophet Zachariah that he gives to us these great promises on what the Lord has provided for us if we would only know in this our day the things which belong to us belong to our peace the tranquility the rest that remains to the people of God in Hebrews chapter 3 in chapter 4 there remains therefore a rest to the people of God a rest in Christ a rest and a dependence upon him to deliver us from our enemies and to help us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life that's such a precious word and it's that which the church so needs to hear as brother Jonah quoted when he got up here a little bit ago in Titus chapter 2 for God for what's the first word for the grace of God hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodly and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world that is God's will that is the provision that God has given his church has given his saints and it is within reach for the common believer you don't have to be a special educated saint or a special anointed or gifted one in order to attain unto it but the common person can reach it through the power of God in the next stanza he says in 76 thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways the direct prophecy thou child is speaking of John the Baptist then a baby then just being born and his name was called John and he gives his prophecy concerning thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest in fact there is no one born among women that was any greater than this prophet according to the word of God verse 77 to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins and that's what they come to John for when he was out in the wilderness they came and they were baptized for the remission of sins they finally realized that there would be a remission the sins would be remitted they would be forgiven they would be cleansed from mankind now it didn't all fully and finally take place until the blood atonement was made on Calvary but this was a preliminary preaching to it of John the Baptist and as the gospel was preached there they were told that they need to repent and their sins would be remitted and it was after no prophet for 400 years can you imagine what that message meant to the people originally even though they seem to have walked away from it later on for a time and then of course in Peter's great message I believe in Pentecost many of those found their way back at the foot of the cross repenting for what their back slid in condition and coming back to God in a real way verse 78 through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day spring or the morning sun rise some translations give it as the sunrise from on high hath visited us the day spring from on high has visited us and here look what he says in the next verse verse 79 to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace that is what God wants you notice here that we don't only get a deliverance from it in a mental ascent but there is also direction for the feet in the gospel and isn't that wonderful those two need to go together yes we need to have it by faith in the heart and in the mind but the feet also can be sanctified and given direction to by the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide our feet into the way of peace well I guess the question that we have here this morning is back to our text in Luke chapter 19 as we have the Lord Jesus and we have to let our imagination go here a bit maybe in just considering and asking and thinking by the word of God and maybe by prayer what would God say to us what would be he offering to us if we at every Christian fellowship would know the things which belong unto our peace but are blinders upon our eyes or for some reason can we not see them as God wants to reveal to them oh I hope that it would not be because we knew not the time of our visitation and I think I've heard those kind of prayers in our prayer meetings concerning a visitation of God and I'm just here to underscore that I look back at my own conversion and some of the deeper experiences I had in my Christian life sometime maybe laying on a sick bed and meditating there was a visitation of God and all of us I trust that have been born again have at least had one of those and numerous ones have had more than one where God drew near to us and drew our hearts to him and that is something we should cherish and take very very careful analysis of and somehow embrace that in a greater way and even seek that God would do that to us yet again and in a greater way that God would have a visitation with us in such a way that we know what his will is and can walk as the prophet Zachariah gives it in this song to us that all those precious things and all those precious promises can be a reality to us oh if thou wouldst known if we would know in this our day the things which belong into our peace all the provisions are there everything has been done he sent his only son finally as he gives in the parable there in order that maybe they will reverence my son all these things have been provided for us none of you can sit there and say I have no idea how to get there I don't think we can even though I think there are some that have not yet attained unto that which they would like to attain to and many of us can say that we press toward the mark we still go onward and upward and forward but we know that this book and the spirit of God has the answer of how to arrive at those things how to have a living reality of them in our life like the young man said of Bolivia I have no there is no way for me to explain what God has shown me and I would have never believed it possible that a person could attain unto what God has shown us in these few years that the preaching of the gospel and the holy walk with God has been given in such a practical way there and that was well worth my trip to just hear a testimony like that may God bless us and may we truly seek the Lord for continued visitations in our own life that we may be holy and godly without blame at the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ thank you and God bless you visitation is an interesting word isn't it so often we in our human condition think of the root word of visitation is visit and so often we as humans we visit a lot we are kind of social creatures if I can put it that way we like to visit we like to casually sit around and talk about things but you know the greek word here for visitation is different than that I want to just clear that up here you know it's not that the Lord Jesus is going to come and sit down and have a cup of coffee with us that's not what this visitation is talking about the greek definition for that word visitation is to inspect some of you work in companies where you know you get a you're always under the concern that you know OSHA might come inspect you or there might be a safety inspection and you know those of you that work in plants or factories know what that feels like you know a little higher tension you need to clean things up make sure things are in order make sure things are to code you know when Jesus visits that's what it's going to be he's going to come he's going to inspect now he's not going to come to inspect necessarily to condemn he's going to come to inspect for our health to bring correction he's going to bring a visitation and inspection to benefit us that's the visitation lord wants he wants to benefit his people but it will be an inspection and I pray this morning as brother Moses shared from God's word that you will inspect your heart this morning see where you're at with the Lord and maybe your prayer would be like Zacharias prayer a prayer of praise and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ well this morning I'd like to open up just for a few minutes if there are any testimonies regarding the message anything God laid on your heart to share this morning you'd raise your hand and we'll get a microphone to you and then we'll have some announcements once that's done so anyone have a word of testimony this morning yes right here yes Ryan yes as I was listening to the message I was reminded of Isaiah chapter 5 of the vineyard that was planted and Isaiah likened it unto what God had done for the for Jerusalem and Judea and how he said there was nothing more that I could do to that vineyard to make it grow to make it prosper to make it do what it should do and yet it brought forth wild grapes and I was just reminded of that you know today there's nothing more that the Lord Jesus could do for us you know he went to the cross he gave his own life and may God help us to take that provision that he's made and to go forward I'd like to bless the Lord today for both messages I work in a world of no absolutes absolutely no absolutes or responsibilities upon people who live by no absolutes but I do bless God that we do have an absolute in Christ when he said I am and I have a scripture in Ezekiel that ties in brother Moe's and DJ's message it says in that day I will cause the horn of the house of Israel to spring forth I will open your mouth to speak then they shall know that I am the Lord and I bless the Lord that we have an opportunity to open our mouth and speak I would like to ask the Lord that I could open my mouth more and speak for him I want to thank both of you men for the messages today Amen anyone else raise your hand word of testimony in Luke it says blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation and you know for Zechariah he lived in the Old Testament he knew what a horn was if anybody was in trouble he had to flee to the horn well we have a horn we can flee to now with Jesus Christ and I thought that's right if we have any kind of problem we can just run to the horn and he is there he is our redeemer and we'll be saved there regardless of what happens God is how he cares for his people he is so faithful Amen excellent reminders well may the Lord add his blessings to the word preached this morning to the testimonies given we rejoice in the Lord in these things