Staying Pure Before God

regarding the birth of Christ, not because the world is celebrating and many of the church celebrates Christmas season now or it's upcoming, but because I would like to start in the book of Luke and preach the last book in the New Testament that I have not preached through the book of Luke. So we've been spending some time addressing the subject of the birth of Christ because it's a prominent subject in the first two or three chapters here of the book of Luke. And so before we jump into it again, I'd like to sing another song that's associated with this season.

223 in our gray book. The Bible says to teach one another in psalms and hymns. So as we sing these songs, they are teaching tools, songs.

God gave us the ability to sing because he would like us to teach one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Let's sing verses one, three and four. We're familiar with all those.

And then we'll open up the scriptures this morning. 223. ♪ O come all ye faithful ♪ ♪ Joyful and triumphant ♪ ♪ O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Come and behold him, born the king of angels ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation ♪ ♪ Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above ♪ ♪ Glory to God in the highest ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning ♪ ♪ Jesus, to thee be all glory given ♪ ♪ Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ Yes, Heavenly Father, we do want to adore you here and acknowledge you in all of our ways.

Lord, we pray your blessing on the word of the Lord as it goes forth into the hearts of all that are here. May the seed of the word find place to sprout, to bring forth life in a soft heart, in a broken heart, that fruit can come forth in the life of the individuals here, each one. So we pray your blessing on the message here this morning in Jesus' name, amen.

This is the third message on the birth of Christ. Just a little review. We started out with God's perspective of the birth of Christ, Matthew chapter 1.1, the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham and the son of David, and the two genealogies that are mentioned in the New Testament deal with God's promise to bring forth a son and the purpose for that son to be brought forth.

He is the son of Abraham because God promised Abraham, of thy seed I'll bless all the families of the earth. Have you been blessed by the Lord Jesus? And he promised David that through your seed, David, I will bring forth a kingdom and a king that will stand forever. And we're living in the beginnings of what is the kingdom of God.

And then he even said to Adam way back in the garden, Adam, your seed and the seed of the woman is going to bruise and crush the serpent's head. And that's why Jesus came into the world to destroy the devil and the power of the devil, to free us from the fear of death. Many who are at all their lifetime, the Bible says subject to bondage because of the fear of death.

Last time, two weeks ago, we mentioned Joseph. Joseph, and what a fine young man. I've been thinking about, you know, the Lord, as he looks down, as he's gonna bring his son into the world and looks down and says, what couple, what couple can I use to bring forth my only begotten son into the world? And so we looked at this young man, Joseph, and a wonderful young man encouraged all the young men here and even us older men to follow the life of Joseph as we considered him last time.

This morning though, I want to look at the life of Mary. Next week, we'll talk about that night in Bethlehem, but I'd like to consider Mary, Mary, the mother of Jesus. Even Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife, who gave birth to John the Baptist, called Mary the mother of my Lord.

And I know that some religious groups have taken that to the extreme, but Jesus is, excuse me, Mary is considered to be the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, certainly the earthly mother of the Lord. And so let's turn in our Bibles this morning to Luke chapter number one. We're gonna start reading in some very familiar verses.

Luke chapter one, starting in verse number 26. And I want to look at five things that the scriptures give us here about Mary and you young ladies ought to set Mary as an example in your life, a beautiful young lady here, and God chose her to be the mother of the Lord. Though there were many young ladies who desired, Mary was the one that was chosen.

Here in Luke chapter one, verse 26, it says, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. Now I want to just comment here on this phrase here, the sixth month.

If you'll jump back to verse 24, we talk here about Elizabeth. It says, and after those days, his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself for five months. Elizabeth conceived five months before the angel here appears to Mary and gives this pronunciation to Mary that Mary is also going to conceive miraculously.

And so Jesus is born roughly six months, five to six months after the conception of John the Baptist. And history tells us this, that Jewish young men were not allowed to start their ministry until they were around 30 years old. And so we understand that John the Baptist became, when he turned 30, he started to preach there in the wilderness.

And he said that the Lord is coming, prepare the way of the Lord. And then six months later, the Lord Jesus is baptized and he begins his ministry. So we're talking here about in the sixth month after the conception of John the Baptist, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary. Who is this Mary? And there's a number of things in the scriptures here that we're gonna look at. Why did God choose her? I'd like you to notice the first thing that come to my attention here as I was pondering this week on this message that Mary is from the city of Galilee and that's important.

Most of the disciples are called out of the area of Galilee. Galilee is in the Northern part of Israel. It's sometimes called Galilee of the Gentiles.

It was probably 70% Gentiles and 30% Jewish people. It's a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. It's a land of shepherds.

It's a land of farmers and it's a land of fishermen. You can imagine being around the sea of Galilee and the need for water for pasture, the need for water for fishing, obviously. And many other things, but it's a land for shepherds, a land for farmers and a land for fishermen.

It is a place where the people are less educated and have a lower income. They're kind of plain individuals. I likened them unto the West Virginians and I don't wanna offend anybody here who's from West Virginia, but some of the Brooks are getting close down there to the West Virginia.

But West Virginia in the United States, we don't think of West Virginia as the place where the educated and the wealthy are. We think of maybe New York and Los Angeles, but it's kind of like the West Virginia of Israel, less educated and a lower income. All those, most of those disciples were from Galilee and the disciples were the ones that were told by the educated there in Jerusalem, these men are unlearned, unlearned and ignorant men.

Remember in the book of Acts, they were called unlearned and ignorant men. I wanna read to you something that happens here in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost. They speak in tongues and you know the story there, I won't read the whole thing, but it says here, and they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, behold are not all these which speak Galileans.

And how here we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born, aren't these people Galileans? And from what we know of Galileans, they don't, they're not educated, they don't know languages. And so this is an amazing thing that these Galileans are speaking in all of these languages. Galileans were obviously much poor and I think of Joseph and Mary and a lot of these stories we're going to, or these accounts we're gonna see here right in the book of Luke.

But Joseph and Mary here in Luke chapter two, in verse 22, you can look there if you'd like, it says, and when the days of our purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him, speaking of the boy Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Now, if you go back and read in the law of the Lord in the book of Leviticus, actually you were told to bring an offering, a lamb. But if you were poor, if you did not have the means to get a lamb, you were allowed to bring two turtle doves and two pigeons. And so we understand from that example that Joseph and Mary were probably poorer, poorer.

You know, Jesus, I think about how he follows his preaching. He taught to, when you go preach the gospel, go first to the poor, the poor. And much of his ministry, he went first to the poor.

And where did he go in his ministry to start? He was baptized and he immediately took off for Galilee. Galilee, where those who are less educated, those who are of a lower class, those who are poor, go first to the poor. In Matthew chapter four, it talks about how he went from this place to this place and all the regions around Galilee.

His first miracle was where? At a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And so Jesus began his ministry there in Galilee. And so we understand first that Mary and Joseph, but Mary especially is of a lower class.

She even says this herself. Turn to Luke chapter one. She is rejoicing in the Lord after she talks and visits here with Elizabeth.

In Luke chapter one, verse 46, it says, "'And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, "'and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior, "'for he has regarded the lowest state, "'the lowest state of his handmaiden. "'For behold, from henceforth, "'all generations shall call me blessed.'" And in her heart, one of the first things she mentions is God has regarded my lowest state. Lowest state meaning God has deserted my low place in life.

You know, we talk about an estate and that many people have a wealthy estate. Mary here confesses that she has a low estate. Look down to verse number 52.

"'He hath put down the mighty from their seats "'and exalted them of low degree.'" And so Mary is acknowledging here her lowliness of degree, her lowliness of estate. And so God looked down and he looked into those who are of lowest state, those who are not high and lifted up. And he chose Mary of low degree.

So God chose Mary because of her humble, a humble place. She's a humble girl. She's a simple girl.

And I just want to encourage all of us. And I think I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. You don't have to be educated.

You don't have to know many languages. You don't have to go to college. You don't have to be wealthy.

You don't have to be popular. God is looking for those who are just humble, just humble. And you don't have to have the world know you.

And you don't have to be a popular individual for God to use you in a mighty way. And so he looked down and he found a little young lady from Galilee who probably grew up in a very poor home and maybe was home educated. Not to say that's a bad thing, but she was certainly not a part of the schools, the upper schools there in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.

So she is of a humble estate. I shared this principle with you a few weeks ago when we talked about another subject, but listen to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1. He says, for you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and the base things. I think of that as Mary, the base things of the world and the things which are despised. And that word despised doesn't mean hated.

It means just kind of, ah, you know, ah. You're just kind of low. You're just kind of down there.

God has chosen these types of individuals to bring to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. And I know there's probably many young ladies in Israel who are dreaming of the possibility of them being that one who would bear the Messiah and bear the Christ. And, you know, maybe they thought if they would get a great education or if they were very popular or if they were very beautiful that these things would somehow draw the Lord to choose them to be the one that bears the Christ child.

Well, that's not the truth at all. The Lord looks down. I don't know how Mary looked as far as her physical appearance, but she was poor and she was a lowly estate and God chose her for this high calling, chosen of God.

That's what we want to look at here. Why was Mary chosen of God? And I believe Mary was also content in her place. And she was a content young lady willing to stay in that lowest state if it's the Lord's will.

So that's where God was looking and he found a young lady. And so we don't have to be a quote career young ladies. We don't have to pursue the things that this world is raising up as high and important, but our hearts need to be before the Lord humble.

Back to Luke here. And I'd like to go on here to the second thing that we're going to talk about regarding Mary. And that is in verse 27 here in Luke chapter one.

It says to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. Now it's mentioned twice here, but Mary was a virgin. And that word is associated with her, the virgin Mary.

She was morally pure. She was morally a pure young lady. And when the Lord looked down for this vessel to bring forth his son, he desired that this young lady have pure morals.

Isaiah chapter seven says a virgin shall conceive. Look down to verse 34. Mary attest to this.

Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be seeing I know not a man. So Mary is a virgin. She's morally pure.

She valued, and I want to emphasize this this morning, she valued her virginity. She did not throw it away. Whether a young man here this morning or a young lady, God desires that we value virginity.

Amen. Value it. It's a valuable thing.

I think of the story of Tamar and Ammon, and you know that in 2 Samuel chapter 13, it says, and Tamar, her virginity was stolen from her by Ammon. And here's how Tamar responded to losing her virginity to her brother. And Tamar put ashes on her head and rent her garments of diverse colors that was on her and laid her hands on her head and went on crying.

Doesn't say how long she went on, but the idea is here is it broke her heart. That she had been violated and she had lost her virginity, which tells me that she valued it. You know, in our society today, young ladies are throwing it away.

Young men are throwing it away. But Mary valued her virginity. Someone hand me a check for maybe $5 and I'll take the check and maybe they owe me $5 and I put it in my pocket.

Don't think nothing of it. It's not that important, $5 check, and may end up in the washing machine. My wife may pick it out a few days later and say, hey honey, is this your check? It's a mess, it's no good anymore.

That's all right. It's only $5. It's not that big of a deal.

But for a period of about nine or 10 years, John Lonecker and I would rehab houses and we'd buy a house and we'd flip it and turn around and sell it. And there were times I was in charge of the finances. There were times where we had a closing.

They hand me a check for $180,000. And I'd say, whoa, I wanna make sure I hold onto this check and fold it and make sure it's in my pocket, check my pocket over and over again, make sure I haven't lost it and go right. We did it usually in Mount Vernon, go right from the closing and rush to the bank to get it in the bank, because that's a lot of money.

And it's a valuable check. And so I treated it much differently because of the value that I placed on it. And I want to exalt the value before God of virginity here.

This morning, young ladies, young men, you ought to value that purity, that virginity, not only for your husband or your wife's sake, but before the Lord. God looked down and said, I want to find a virgin of a low estate. You know, I thought of Esau.

Esau there in Hebrew says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau. You know what a profane person is? It's someone that takes something very valuable and throws it away. Profane.

Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Now a birthright back in those days was a very valuable thing, but he didn't understand or he didn't appreciate the value of being the firstborn and having the birthright. And he sold it for a bowl of pottage, a moment of pleasure.

Just let me, he was hungry. Just let me have a moment of pleasure and I'll give up this valuable birthright. How many young people today do the very same thing? Just for a moment of pleasure, I'll give up my virginity.

I don't value it. And that's the problem. We don't value it.

So I want to encourage you young ladies and young men to value virginity. There are times like Tamar when virginity is stolen. I've been around the ministry here for close to 40 years and in counseling and probably some people here, I don't want to offend anyone, but you know, size a crowd here, there's probably people who maybe have had their virginity stolen from them, young ladies.

And nowadays it's getting so perverse that even young men are being abused. And that's a tragedy, but you know, we do live in a fallen world and sometimes things like that happen. And I believe the grace of God is sufficient for all the difficulties in life, that you can get through these difficulties.

And yes, there are situations that are tragic and let's not be a part of those tragic situations. I know this is not a revival sermon. It's a sermon on Mary, but you know, fathers, you know, there is a thing called incest, fathers.

Let's make sure that we treat our daughters with respect. Amen. You know, how many times, and my wife and I, who have counseled with couples and young people, how many times a father, a brother, a brother violates a sister? How many times does a cousin or an uncle take that which is valuable from a young lady and steal her virginity? So just a warning to fathers, a warning to brothers, a warning to uncles and cousins, and be mindful that that virginity is from God's perspective, very valuable.

And as the Lord looked down and he was trying to find that young lady that would carry this baby called the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I want to find a virgin. And not only a virgin, but one who values that virginity. 1 Timothy 5 says, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity.

Amen. With all purity. So young men, older men, the admonition to us, the instruction to us is to treat the younger as sisters with all purity.

Amen. Young men, you ought not to try to flirt with the young ladies, treat them purely. You ought not to try to stare at them, lust after them.

Can I get an amen for that? But treat the young ladies with purity. I like Mary, she's a young lady that is of a low estate and she's a young lady that has kept her purity. And God honored that.

Verse 28 says, and the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.

Now, you know, Mary's not some special thing that the Catholic church makes out to be some goddess of some sort, but Mary is just a simple young lady. But notice here in verse 28, it says, the angel says, thou art highly favored. I like that.

Thou art highly favored. Let me ask you a question. Does the Lord have favorites? Sounds like it, doesn't he? You know, I don't know if we can blame Joseph because he was one of the favorites of Jacob and he made the coat of many colors and it got him in trouble with his brothers, but it seems like God has favorites.

And you know, Mary, you're one that's highly favored. Mary, the angel said to her, now, I believe we're all favored of God. You know, when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we become favored of him and praise God for that.

But if you live out righteousness, you'll walk in the spirit, you live by faith, you can be highly favored of him. And Mary was one of those. Mary had a fear of God and she walked in obedience to the Lord and she was a lady who was highly favored.

I like her testimony. Go back here to verse 48 here in Luke chapter one. Look what it says in verse 48.

He says, for he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed, for he that is mighty has done to me great things and holy is his name and mercy is on all them that fear him from generation to generation. Now, Mary is confessing from her own heart. God has been merciful to me because I fear him.

I seek to honor and reverence his word. She had a conscience. She had convictions.

She wasn't loose. She feared God. Was Mary sinless? No, she was not.

Matter of fact, it says there in verse 47, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior. Mary needed a savior just like we do, but she feared God. She had a reverence and a fear of God.

And so she was highly favored. I think of Daniel when the angel, same angel, Gabriel comes to Daniel and he says to Daniel, Daniel, you are greatly beloved. Daniel, you are greatly beloved.

And I know that those who are children of God, those who have come to Christ by faith, they are beloved. Ephesians says, beloved of the father. But here's a man who is greatly beloved, greatly beloved because of his obedience.

And he followed Daniel's life and his willingness to not eat the king's meat, to be willing to suffer, to go into the lion's den, to follow the will of God, even though it cost him his life. And Daniel, you're greatly beloved. Mary, this is from Gabriel.

You are highly favored, Mary. Why? Because you fear God, Mary, and God knows it. You're highly favored.

Let's keep going on here. Look at Luke chapter two. It's another example of this here.

In Luke chapter two, verse 51, we'll try to stay right here in the first part of Luke. You know the story that the parents of Jesus took him to Jerusalem and he gets lost and he's over at the temple. In Luke chapter two, verse 51, it says, and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them.

But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And notice verse 52, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Now he's increasing in favor with God and man.

In other words, you can increase in favor with God and man. How do you increase in favor with man? Let's say you have an employer and you wanna get in favor with your employer. What do you do? The Caleb here, he's overseeing a few young men.

And I just thought about, well, if I was trying to get in favor with an employer, I would do a number of things. I would be obedient. My employer asked me to do something.

I would obey him. I would be prompt. I wouldn't show up late for work.

I would show up early for work. I would be prompt. I would be a thankful person to my employer.

I would respect my employer. And if I did those things, all of a sudden my favor level would rise in his eyes. Jesus grew in favor with men and with God.

So yes, I believe we're all favored because we've come to Christ by faith. But those who are willing to walk in obedience and to fear God can be highly, highly favored. So Mary is highly favored.

Good girl. Obedient. A virgin.

And one from a low degree. Let's look at something else here that Mary is. Verse 28.

This is a rather lengthy passage here. I'm going to read verse 28 down to verse 38 and Luke chapter one, verse 28. The angel came in under her and said, "'Hail, thou that art highly favored.

The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. You're a special lady amongst all the women of Israel.' And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

And the angel said unto her, "'Fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest.

And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father, David.'" We talked about that. "'And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there shall be no end.

The Lord has established his kingdom. He is seated at the right hand of God, even right now. And you and I can be a part of that kingdom.' Then said Mary unto the angel, "'How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?'' How's this gonna work? And the angel answered and said unto her, "'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

Therefore also that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her, who is called barren.

For with God, nothing is or nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.'" Now, Mary has a beautiful faith response to what the angel says to her.

Her response was, I believe. Now, we're gonna see another individual in this same chapter, chapter one, who didn't believe when the angel came to him, Zachariah. But Mary here responds with a heart of faith.

All she asks the angel is, I believe it's gonna happen, but how is it gonna happen? The angel goes on to say, here's how it's gonna happen. The Holy Ghost is gonna come upon you. You're gonna conceive.

But in Mary's heart, she believed what the angel had spoken unto her. Look down to chapter one, verse 41. This is Elizabeth.

By the way, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Ghost is speaking out through Elizabeth. In verse 41, speaking to Mary, it says, and it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, that's John the Baptist, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.

And she spake out with a loud voice and said, "'Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.'" Now look at verse 45. "'And blessed is she that believeth.'" God is pronouncing through Elizabeth a blessing.

"'Blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.'" She gets the affirmation here. God's Spirit through Elizabeth says, "'Blessed are you that believe the angel.'" Mary is a young lady of a tender heart, a broken and contrite spirit, because she believes the Word of God. She believes.

The angel comes, says, "'This is what's gonna happen.' And Mary in her heart believes." Now I'd like to look at someone else who doesn't believe. And in the very same chapter, the same thing happens, but Zachariah does the opposite here in Luke 1, verse 11. And I'm just gonna jump into the middle of the story here.

Zachariah is serving there at the temple. He's a Levite. In verse 11, it says, "'There appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

And when Zachariah saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, "'Fear not, Zachariah, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.'" I'll jump down to verse 18 here. "'And Zachariah said unto the angel, "'Whereby shall I know this?' Whereby shall I know this? Not how is this gonna come to pass, but how am I going to know this is true? Show me a sign.

How am I gonna know this? "'For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.' And the angel answered, said unto him, "'I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not be able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words.'" You know, Zachariah has heard that and says, not gonna happen. My wife and I were way too old for that.

Not gonna happen. How? How is that gonna happen? Mary, when she heard she was gonna conceive, she said, in her heart, gonna happen. And her question was, how is it gonna happen? She believed.

And here the angel rebukes Zachariah because he believed not the words. Zachariah needed a sign. Oh, there's a lot of people today.

Show me a sign, Lord. I need some sort of a sign in order to believe. But Mary was quick to believe based upon the word of the angel.

She had a childlike faith in God. You know what? Children are very much that way. They believe.

They believe what dad tells them. They believe what mom tells them. And Mary had a beautiful faith.

In John 6, verse 30, the Pharisees said to Jesus, show us a sign and we'll believe. Show us a sign. Give us some physical thing and we'll believe.

It was even shared, Loyal shared it this morning as he was reading through the scriptures there. Jesus on the cross, come down from the cross and we will believe. Let us see something.

That's the Bible say in Hebrews, faith is the substance of things, hope for the evidence of things. What? Not seeing. You know, faith, you shouldn't have to see anything.

All you have to do is say God said it and that settles it. If God made a promise, it'll come to pass. I don't have to see anything.

True faith needs not to see, it believes the word spoken. And Mary was a woman of faith, which tells me she was a tenderhearted young lady, a pure young lady, one who feared God. I mean, she's got a lot of things going for her.

And then here, this last one I wanna share with you about Mary in Luke chapter one here, verse 38. It says, and Mary said, after the angel spoke to her, and Mary said, behold, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her beautiful young lady.

I don't know how old she is. Let's say she's 20. And she says, okay, I'm gonna have a baby.

This baby's gonna be conceived by the Holy Ghost. I have no idea how that's gonna work. Be it unto me, be it unto me.

I am, she says here, the handmaid of the Lord. And I look the word handmaid up, but it simply means a slave or a servant. You know, a female slave is called a handmaid.

On your handmaidens and on your servants, I will pour out of my spirit. And this is in the definition in the concordance, one who gives himself up to the will of another. So a slave does, doesn't it? I give myself up to the will of another.

Mary says, behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Whatever you want, whatever the Lord wants, I give myself to his purposes. Be it unto me according to thy word.

I'll take it. That meant, when I thought about that, that meant one, she's saying, I'll be the mother of the Messiah. She also said, I'll be willing to suffer the consequences.

Amen. Amen. Because you have to believe in her heart that she understood the consequences that she was entering into.

I'm willing to have this child and I'm willing to suffer the consequences. And the consequences were great. You know, she was called, blessed art thou.

Blessed art thou. Mary, you're so favored and you're so blessed. But Mary, there's another side to the story.

And you know, here we sit this morning and God has blessed us, amen. And we're blessed and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet there's another side.

Take up a cross. Deny yourself. And so I'd have to think that as Mary is standing there and hearing these things, Mary is thinking, okay, I'm gonna have a baby.

I don't have a husband. So that's not good. What are people gonna think about me? And of course you see in the scriptures that people are making accusations.

There are things going on about this son who is the father, ah, Mary. So Mary has to deal with a life of reproach. She's an unclean girl.

That's a hard thing for a pure young lady who fears God, who has a tender heart to have to be accused of. Can you imagine people saying, whose baby is it, Mary? Ah, it was conceived of the Holy Spirit. All right, Mary.

Now, maybe there was a few like Simeon and her husband, Joseph, and maybe the close people that would say, really, Mary? Oh, that's amazing. But the majority of the people in the world there were ridiculing her. You're a fornicator, Mary.

You're a fornicator. The child is illegitimate, Mary. And you know, she's gonna have to bear this reproach all her life.

So if you think, well, it'd be great to be Mary, to be the mother of the Messiah, to be this blessed woman. Yes, but understand here what Mary is getting into. It doesn't take long for Mary to find out what she's getting into.

Look to Luke 2 here. They take the child into the temple to have the child blessed. And in Luke 2, verse 34, Simeon, this godly man, comes to them.

It says, and Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary, his mother, behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against. This child is going to be hated. This child is going to have animosity and he's gonna be spoken against.

And look at verse 35. Yea, and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also. Mary, Mary, the child is gonna be spoken against and you, Mary, are gonna have heartache.

Heartache. And so, the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me as you will, Lord. You know, Mary's life will change dramatically from this moment on.

Yes, blessed art thou among women, but it also comes with a price. She'll become a woman of reproach in the eyes of the world, but she'll embrace it. And she'll be willing to suffer for Jesus' sake, amen.

You know, I think of us, we're the same way. We were blessed, we're blessed people. And yet the Lord calls us to suffer and bear reproach.

Just like Mary, but she embraced it. I'd like you to turn to one more verse here, back to Hebrews chapter 13 this morning. And I'd like to read here.

In Hebrews 13, starting in verse 10, there's a beautiful Old Testament picture here of what Christianity is all about. And Mary is learning that. Mary, oh Mary, you're so blessed.

And Mary was happy. And I'm sure that child brought her so much joy, but with that happiness came great sorrow and then a piercing of her own heart. In Hebrews chapter 13, starting in verse 10, we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priests for sin and are burned without the camp.

Now it's a picture here of in the temple when you would bring a sacrifice, maybe an animal, a lamb, you'd bring it to the high priest and you'd enter the front gate. The altar of the brazen altar was the first thing you would see if you've seen these models of the tabernacle, the brazen altar, that's where the animals brought and it was killed there, it was slaughtered there. And the neck was cut and they did all the butchering there if you've ever butchered animals.

And the blood of that lamb was taken into the Holy of Holies and offered on the mercy seat. The meat of that lamb, didn't want to go to waste, was given to the priests for their sustenance. Have you ever done butchering before, you butcher an animal? Once the blood's drained and once the good meat's taken out, what's left? The junk, right? The head, the feet, the innards, the things that are unwanted, the pile of it.

I remember we butchered over here at our place. Brother John Lonecker had a front end loader and boy, we filled that thing up with just the unwanted and we took it into the backwoods, put it in a hole and buried it. Why? Didn't want it, didn't want it around.

And that's the picture, you know, we think of that lamb and I just want to represent here and Mary understands this, but that lamb, it's a beautiful lamb, it's brought down to sacrifice and Jesus was the lamb of God and yes, the blood of Jesus. We celebrated that here this morning and we need the blood for the forgiveness of our sins and yes, the meat, you know? I am the meat, I am the bread of life. We need to sustain ourselves with this here, the meat of the word and he is the meat that sustains us, just like the priests, they were sustained with that meat that was offered.

By the way, are you a priest? You are a priest. But then there's that pile of junk and that's a part of the lamb too. And that part of the lamb was taken and taken way far away and let's keep reading here what it says.

Verse 12, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. You know, in that lamb, that sacrifice, there are three parts of the Christian life. The first one is the blood, you need the blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

The second part is that meat that the priests kept and ate sustained themselves and that's the word of God, we eat, he's the manna, he's the bread of life, we are sustained by him. But the third part is all the stuff that they cast out and burned it outside the city. And that's a part of the Christian experience.

You know, I wish Mary could have said, blessed, you know, Elizabeth, blessed art thou Mary and Mary, your life is gonna be full of joy and there's gonna be no problems because you're the mother of the Messiah and everything is gonna be wonderful, Mary, what a blessed life you're gonna have. But it wasn't that way, was it? You're blessed Mary, but Mary, you're gonna go through a lot of difficulty. You're gonna be a reproach to your people.

People will lie about you. And in the very same way, our Christian life is much like that Mary experience. It says here in verse 13, let us go forth, therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.

And so one of the places that we ought to find ourselves is outside the camp. You know, it's inside the camp here today. We like it in here, you know, it's nice, it's warm, it's dry, we got good food waiting for us.

We get to hear preaching, we get to fellowship one with another and it's like, you know, the blood and the meat, it's all good stuff. It's just that pile of junk, we don't like it. And we don't like the part of Christianity which calls Mary to go out outside the city and bear reproach, bear reproach.

So we're encouraged to let us go forth, therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. That's our responsibility as a child of God. It's in the lamb.

The blood is there, the meat is there, but all the other stuff is there too. We can't pick and choose, amen. If you come after me, Jesus said, deny yourself, take up a cross.

Mary, if you're a blessed woman, Mary, I'm doing some great things for you and generations shall call you blessed, Mary. But Simeon reminds her, Mary, that child is gonna be spoken against, Mary, and a sword is gonna pierce through your own heart. And Mary says, be it unto me.

You know, we need more Christians who'll say, Lord, be it unto me, this reproach, be it unto me. So I think of Mary as a woman who is submitted to the will of God and willing to suffer. She was a woman of faith.

She believed. She was highly favored because of her fear of God. She was a pure lady, pure young woman.

Just encourage you all, you know, we're living in a very impure world. Impurities are everywhere. Just encourage young ladies, you know, young men, be pure.

Seek for purity in your relationship. Some of you are in a courtship, be pure. The Bible says it's not good for a man to touch a woman.

We don't make rules here, but have purity in your relationship, amen, be pure. And then Mary was humble. Humble, a woman of low degree.

Put Mary and Joseph together. There's a couple that I can set my son in the midst and he'll be in a good place. And so young people, let's try to pursue that course.

And you say, well, I've already made mistakes. I've already failed. I have issues that I've already addressed.

Well, you can still be a virgin. I mean, you come to the Lord, you say, Lord, I failed, but get your heart cleansed and be a spiritual virgin. We're espoused unto the Lord Jesus Christ and he calls us to be virgins, to love him only, to have one affection and not to be a harlot going about with all kinds of other lovers, having all the loves of this present world, but being a spiritual virgin in his sight, amen.

I love Mary. I don't know, just spending time thinking about her. God, help us to have young Marys here and also Joseph's that know how to take care of young Marys, amen.

Let's close. We'll have a word of prayer. And why don't we go to our knees here this morning and then we'll pray.

Have a few moments of silence and let's just pray. Maybe God's spoken to you about something in your life. Let's humble ourselves like Mary, take the low place and pray to him.