Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] In one sense, we ought to read the whole of this chapter. But it is a very long chapter.
[00:00:11] In the earlier part of the chapter, they told about Zacharias and Elizabeth. How when Zacharias was offering incense in the holy place. He saw an angel of the Lord by the altar of incense. And the angel of the Lord told him about the birth of a baby to his. To he and his wife. And he was a little startled and not quite able to believe. And the angel told him that because he hadn't believed quickly, he wouldn't speak until it came to pass.
[00:00:47] And of course, when it came to pass, the relatives were a little bit bothered about it. We'll read about that in a moment. Verse 39. And Mary arose in these days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah. And entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass. When Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she lifted up a voice with a loud cry 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 behold, when the voice of thy salutation came into mine ears. The babe leapt in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed. For there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my saviour. For he hath looked upon the lowest state of his handmaid. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things. And holy is his name. And his mercy is unto generations and generations on them that fear him. He has showed his strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. He has put down princes from their thrones and has exhorted them of low degree the hungry he has filled with good things. And the rich he has sent empty away. He has given help to Israel, his servant. That he might remember mercy as he spake unto our fathers toward Abraham and his seed forever.
[00:02:49] And Mary abode with her about three months and returned unto her house.
[00:02:55] Now Elizabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be delivered. And she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her kinsfolk heard that the lord had magnified his mercy towards her. And they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass on the 8th day that they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
[00:03:18] And his mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, there is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, saying, his name is John.
[00:03:39] And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened immediately and his tongue loosed. And he spake, blessing God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them. And all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. For he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to show mercy towards our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware unto Abraham our father, to grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Yea, and thou, child, shall be called the prophet of the most high. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways to give knowledge of salvation unto his people in the remission of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high shall visit us to shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.
[00:05:38] That is, upon the intertestamental period. And we can't possibly go over everything that we said, although a little part of this evening we shall spend in summing up what we have studied together over this past autumn in this very wonderful period in the history of God's people. This evening I want especially to speak about the post maccabean period. You remember we've dealt with the pre maccabean period.
[00:06:15] That is up to the rise of the Maccabeans in roughly about 175. And then from then, we have dealt with the maccabean period, one of the most glorious eras, epochs in the history of God's people. Now, tonight I want to take the last little portion of history before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We call it the post maccabean period. And this last short period that we're going to consider now began with Pompey, the roman general's conquest of Palestine in 63 bc. 63 BC. Pompey took Judea after the year before. He had taken Syria for Rome. And this little period lasts until the birth of Christ in approximately either six or five bc.
[00:07:20] Therefore, this period is, in fact, less than 60 years in length. That is, if it can help any of you here. It is within the lifetime of quite a number of you. It is within an average lifetime, 60 years. You, if you'd lived in those days, you could have seen the whole thing. You could have actually lived right through the whole of this little period that we're considering this evening, from the conquest of Judea by General Pompey, and he's annexing it to Rome right through to the actual birth of, of our Lord Jesus Christ in approximately six or five bc. Now, although this period is a very short period, it is noteworthy in this respect that it, for the people of God, come for the first time under the roman yoke. They had been under egyptian yoke. They had been under the Assyrian Yoke, they had been under the babylonian yoke. And there had been glorious periods when they had been under God's government alone. Now, they had come under greek yoke. Now they came under the roman yoke. It was this period that saw the people of God brought into bondage to the Romans.
[00:08:53] It also is noteworthy that it was not only that they came under roman law and roman government and roman military power, but it also saw the rise of the men that we see so much in the New Testament, the Herods.
[00:09:13] We see in this period the rise of Herod the Great. We see the birth of his sons, who later we are to hear of again and again in the ministry of, of our Lord Jesus Christ. And later on, we even come up against his grandson in the ministry of the apostle Paul, Herod Agrippa. Now, all this happened in this period. It was the rise of what we call the herodian dynasty, the royal house of the Herods, and they came to power at this time. It was also noteworthy in this respect that during these short 60 years, the temple was completely rebuilt by Herod the Great and was rebuilt with the most magnificent proportions. Indeed, it was absolutely true that the latter glory of the house outshone even Solomon's structure because of its tremendous proportions. And the amount of gold, particularly that was used in its construction, especially on the outside, was a most magnificent structure.
[00:10:24] All these things happened in this short 60 years. Then again, it is also noteworthy because it was during these years that there was a quickening anticipation of the coming Messiah.
[00:10:42] We shall talk about that in a moment. Why there was a quickening of that anticipation, but there was a definite quickening anticipation that the messiah was coming. People were eager for his coming, longing for him to appear to do something in the mess that they felt the covenant people of God had got themselves into. And then also it was noteworthy in this respect from God's point of view, that it was the period that saw the final preparation of a tiny, faithful remnant who were there and were in many ways the instruments of God for the fulfilling of his purpose. Right at the end, during these 60 years, there were a little group of people, unknown before, quite insignificant, that God took hold of, who were ready for him, devoted to him and people he could. Now, all this, I believe, is full of instruction. And maybe it's even more thrilling for us to remember that it all happened within 60 years, which means that when God wants to work, he can work swiftly. Sometimes the law takes thousands and thousands of years.
[00:12:00] I know some christians who find it a bit depressing to recognize that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years years. But they should also remember that a thousand years is as a day. There are times when the Lord can do a thousand years work in a day. Now remember that sometimes the Lord does a day's work in a thousand years. It seems it spread over a long period. And oh, how we would like to push him, how we would like to agitate, how we would like to get him to go on with it. If only, if only, if only. But it seems the Lord takes his time. He won't be hurried, he won't allow agitation to press him into precipitate action. But there are other times, dear child of God, when the Lord can do a universe in a single moment of time. He spake and it was done.
[00:12:54] It is quite possible that in one single word of God, the whole universe as we know it came into being. It is possible.
[00:13:02] Now, you see, we therefore can draw help from this little period that we're studying together this evening, because it means that when the Lord wants to act swiftly, although he's been preparing for thousands of years. When finally everything is set, he moves and can move fast.
[00:13:24] And as I have often said to you, John the Baptist's ministry was the greatest ministry, said the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that the world had ever seen. Yet it lasted six months.
[00:13:38] It lasted six months, six months. And the greatest ministry the world had ever seen, with all its shattering effectiveness, had been fulfilled.
[00:13:51] And even our Lord's ministry was only three and a half years at the most at the outside.
[00:13:57] And yet it surely was the ministry that excelled and transcended all other ministries that had ever been known prophetic or priestly or in any other field in the whole history of God's ways with men. Now, when God wants to work, he can work fast and with eternal values in a very short time. This is one of the lessons we can learn from this period. You mustn't think that the coming of the Lord must be, oh, hundreds of years away or much time away, even tonight. It can be that the Lord will do things swiftly and that everything that is required to be done shall be done. And the Lord may be back before you and I know where we are.
[00:14:47] By the end of the actual Maccabean period, that is the actual maccabean period, not the pre or the post, most of the original land of Israel had been recovered. That's why we call it one of the most glorious eras in the history of God's people. Under Judas, Maccabeus and the others, they recovered by faith in the Lord and by sheer devotion to him.
[00:15:18] They were a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy. They shall know the Lord and shall be strong and shall do exploits. These men went out and they recovered all the territory that had been lost. And they extended the boundaries of Israel so that they were as great as the boundaries in Solomon's day. In other words, never before in the history of God's people had they actually possessed so much of the territory God had promised them. All had come to them. It was recovered. And not only that, but in the maccabean period, those terrible, hellenizing, gentile influences that we've talked about in past studies had been checked. If they had not been eliminated, they had certainly been pushed back. And instead of swamping the people of God, they were definitely now, this is what had happened in the maccabean period by the grace of God. Nevertheless, the close of that era was marked by a very sad and tragic decline and deterioration of both spiritual life and spiritual character. And as always, what followed was civil war. God's people began to fight each other. Internal, continual internal dissension and corruption and intrigue of every kind. Now it was this very civil war and internal dissension that invited the Romans interest. They saw all this happening and they began to play off, one side against the other. Until finally Pompey marched in in 63 BC. And after a sharp battle, a long battle, actually, it lasted three months, he finally took the temple. And we're told that some 12,000 people died in the final siege of the temple. They'd all locked themselves up in the temple. It was the sabbath. And one thing we can say for the people of God, they refused in a very courageous way, because it was the sabbath to fight. The result was that when Pompey finally took his men into the temple, the priests were carrying on with their duties right to the end. And they were simply slaughtered in their hundreds as they offered up SacriFICe at the altar and incense and so on, going ABout their duties. This is the story that we have at the end of the. The MAccABeAn era and the beginning of this period that we are thinking about this evening.
[00:18:13] The decline and deterioration that marked the end of the MAccABeAN period continued steadily throughout these 60 years. It was never checked at any single point, although the Pharisees stood against it. The Pharisees themselves became formalistic and legalistic. So that they had a form of godliness, but they denied the power tHereof. They had a puritan tradition, but by the time of our Lord's coming, their puritan tradition had become formalism and legalism. And that was all. There was nothing else to it. They talked and talked and talked ABout the intricacies of law. And of keeping the law of God. And of ceremonial cleanliness and purity and separation from the world and all these kind of things. But as for a knowledge of God, as the Lord Jesus said about the weightier matters of justice and of mercy and of love, they knew nothing.
[00:19:19] Now, that's very sad. And it has a lesson for us.
[00:19:23] We are in the same kind of tradition. I don't hesitate to say it, that we evangelicals come nearer to the Pharisees than any other group.
[00:19:32] I might say that in the Old Testament we hold very much the same kind of belief. And we are always prone to the same terrible dangers. Formalism and legalism.
[00:19:45] In other words, we have it all and we believe in it all. And we are fundamentalists to, as we ought to be, believe in the authority, inspiration of the word of God. But there is a denying of the actual living power and experience of God. The living God himself, in everyday life. Now, this decline of deterioration was not checked by the Pharisees. In fact, so cleverly and cunningly did Satan work that they became a tool in the end through which he worked. The other group who stood against this decline and deterioration with very much more success, were what we call the Essenes.
[00:20:35] Only, unfortunately, they were pressed to the position of being separatists and exclusives and in the end became so divorced from life, they were all the time in danger of excess and extremism. So you have these two forces which had in the past, pre maccabean and certainly maccabean days, been used by God to check the tide of worldliness and superficiality themselves, beginning, as it were, to go off the roads, off the road, off the rails, and becoming, in effective about 20 years after the roman conquest in 63 bc, that is, in 40 BC, through much intrigue and diplomacy, Herod the Great was recognized by Augustus, the emperor in Rome, as king of Judea. He was a ruthless, cruel and brilliantly clever man.
[00:21:49] Thus began the rule of the herods. Now, we have already talked about the herods and their family and the extraordinary story, which is almost modern, of the way he murdered everyone who came within the orbit of his influence, particularly his own family. In fact, at one time, Augustus said it would be safer to be Herod's pig than to be Herod's son.
[00:22:19] That's what was felt about Herod. He suffered from some form of madness in the end, which is typical of many dictators. Stalin was one of them, Hitler was another and finally destroyed everyone who was around him because of violent suspicions.
[00:22:35] Well, as I've said, we've already studied the reign of Herod. There's no more need to say much this evening, except to say that his reign lasted until the birth of Christ. In actual fact, he lived two or three years after the birth of Christ. And his greatest feat was the rebuilding of the temple into the structure that the Lord Jesus knew in his own day and ministry.
[00:23:12] The rest of his reign was the story of cruelty, of murder and of intrigue. Thus, by the time of Christ's birth, God's people were firmly under the roman yoke. Because King Herod was not given complete sovereignty, he was made a vassal ruler within roman government and administration.
[00:23:46] So God's people, by the time of Christ's birth, were firmly under the roman yoke. It was a common sight from end to end of Palestine, to see roman soldiers, to see roman centurions, to see the governor.
[00:24:04] It was a common sight to see on the outer court, roof of the temple, roman guards walking round the actual temple, keeping eye on the crowds in there, watching against riots and other things. All this was common to the people of God. At the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were ruled by an Edomite Arab, half edomite, half Arab, with one jewish wife and quite a few other wives of various other religions called Herod.
[00:24:45] The Pharisees were the majority party in the Sanhedrin, wielding tremendous influence and power amongst the people, but utterly servile to Rome.
[00:25:00] The Sadducees, the aristocratic nobility of the land, and the high priestly families were completely wedded to hellenism and to the Romans. The Essenes, on the other hand, those that we've mentioned as separatists or exclusives, were the one group with the most spiritual life.
[00:25:28] And, in fact, it was amongst them that the most happened. Now that we are discovering more and more about the Essenes, we are discovering that they were most remarkable communities. And although they withdrew often into desert places and withdrew into themselves into a kind of community life, they separated from everything around, withdrew from all public life and responsibility. Yet, in actual fact, their study of the scriptures, their understanding of the scriptures, is really quite remarkable. And we also understand from some quarters that they knew the moving of the spirit of God amongst them in very remarkable ways. So here we have this other group at the coming of the Lord. But unfortunately, they had so withdrawn that they were no actual power or influence in the life of God's people, outwardly, at any rate. And then we have the common people longing for the mysterious person of the messiah, who would appear and restore Israel and rid them of the gentile yoke and bondage and bring in the kingdom of God? Now, why did I say a little earlier that this period saw a very real quickening of the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah? For this reason, when the people of God were absolutely sovereign and not under any foreign gentile yoke, they did not feel the same need for the Messiah. But when the roman yoke came back and they saw everywhere the evidences of a gentile occupying military force in the people's hearts, there was kindled a longing for this mysterious person of the Messiah, because they had firmly got it into their heads. And this was the thing the Lord had to explain again and again that this coming Messiah was going to set up the kingdom of God on earth in physical terms. He was going to lead the people in a tremendous rebellion against the Romans or whoever was in power. He was going to overthrow them. He was going to set up the ancient government of the people of God, a theocratic government under the personal, direct rule of God himself. And he was going to lead Israel at the head of all the nations. And then, of course, they saw that all the prophecies about all the riches of the. The nations and the glory of the nations flowing into Zion would come true. When this man appeared, so naturally there was a quickening anticipation. When is the Messiah going to come? These Romans, they are robbing us of everything. The taxes are so heavy, they are bleeding us to death.
[00:28:38] We are hardly able to live really as Jews in one sense. You must remember that the old covenant people of God were a naturally superior people.
[00:28:52] They resented more than many other races occupation by foreign gentile power. It wasn't just a question of Greeks or Britons or Cyrenians or Egyptians. For the jew, there was only a jew or a gentile. It doesn't matter who he was. If he was a gentile, he was a gentile. Whether he was from Gaul or whether he was from Parthia, it didn't make any difference. He was a gentile. We are Jews and we are God's people. God's own people. Why should we be under their domination? Why should we come under their yoke? So they looked for a messiah who was a military come, political, come religious figure. Now, this is very important because later on, when we study more closely the gospels, we shall find the Lord battling against this. And at the very end of his life, at the very end of his. Well, in fact, after his earthly life was over, what do his disciples say after the resurrection, just before the ascension? They say, when are you came to restore Israel?
[00:30:06] When is going to come the restitution of all things. In other words, even they at that time, before the coming of the Holy Spirit, had still got it fixed in their mind that this Lord Jesus Christ was still going to do something about the roman yoke and power and somehow do something for Israel in a physical way. Well, now, all that, that was the situation at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest move of all in these 60 years, apart from the actual birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, was, I suppose, the most silent and the most hidden move of them all.
[00:30:58] It was the preparation of a faithful remnant for the coming of the Lord. Little did that remnant know that all the ages hinged upon them literally. I have no doubt at all that Zacharias would have fallen down in a dead fate if he had been told that all the history of God's people rested upon him.
[00:31:29] And that the child that was to be born was going to be the greatest prophet of them all. It simply bold poor Zacharias over. And I've always felt sorry for him that the angel allowed him to be dumb because he didn't more quickly believe what was said.
[00:31:48] It was of course a glorious thing the Lord did. And later Zacharias was very thankful that he was made dumb because evidently it was such a wonderful sign. Nevertheless, it seemed a bit extraordinary. Wouldn't you have been a little bit amazed if an angel had appeared to you and told you this? You would have perhaps reeled under the blow. You would have thought you were the subject of a hallucination, I should imagine, if this happened, you see, upon this little group there hinged everything. Now don't get fanciful ideas about these people.
[00:32:25] Mary was an ordinary young girl. We believe today that she was probably 1314 or 15 at the most.
[00:32:38] If the maximum of 15 year old girl.
[00:32:43] And the angel Gabriel tells her that she is to be the mother of the messiah no wonder poor Mary was affrighted and wondered what on earth had happened to her. And in her experience no wonder Joseph didn't believe the story and was minded to put her away privately. He was a just man and he, rather than have a public divorce and all the things that would mean that Mary would be ruined for life, he thought this is a fanciful story.
[00:33:21] He evidently believed she'd been with someone else and the only right thing to do was to quietly put her away.
[00:33:27] But the angel went to Joseph then and had a talk with Joseph now. It's all quite ordinary. We don't need to get sort of sensational about it or sort of those sort of metro Goldwyn Meyer type of idea about it all. I'm quite sure that it all happened in ordinary ways. Probably the angel appeared to Mary in the kitchen, probably appeared to Joseph at his carpenter's bench. It was all tied in with normal everyday life. And when it happened, it was evidently startling just because it was from heaven.
[00:34:07] We get these ideas partly from these masterpieces from the middle ages of some pious, sanctimonious sort of hue and atmosphere that sort of filtered through everything and sort of warned them all that something took was going to happen. I am not the least bit sure that this was so. And I think it explains the quite ordinary, normal human reaction of every single one of them. The first reaction of them all was that they were startled and were affrighted.
[00:34:43] They had to be steadied by the angel and had to be comforted and convinced that what in fact was.
[00:34:53] What was going to happen was of God and was genuine. I say, little did this faithful remnant know that the ages hinged upon them. My dear friends, it didn't happen in a moment. It wasn't that. Suddenly God said to Zacharias, now Zacharias and Zacharias became. Turned over a new leaf overnight and said, here I am, lord. I'm going to live an absolutely perfect life. From now on. I'm going to be devoted to thee. I am quite sure that there was a history, a real, genuine, hidden history. There was Joseph's history in the carpenter's bench. There was Mary's history probably with her mother in the home. There was Elizabeth's history as a. As a married woman without a family, full of good work. She was always helping, evidently other people. There was Zacharias history. A priest after one of the courses, in one of the courses in the temple.
[00:35:58] And all these had a history behind them. Now it's no good you saying to me that you doubt that. I tell you why.
[00:36:09] If you read what they. You will discover that it's loaded with scripture.
[00:36:15] Loaded with scripture. Some people seem to think that Mary, that prophecy means that you open your mouth and anything comes into it. It is not always or necessarily like that at all. It can be that scripture and the word of God and the mind of God which has sunk into your heart over years is played upon and brought out by the Holy Spirit. So that the dealings that God has had with you come out. And surely this is so. If you look at what we call the magnificat. If you look at these little things here in the scripture. Well, for instance, what Zacharias has said, what Elizabeth has said, what Mary has said. If you look at them carefully. And later, Simeon, if you look at these carefully, you will find they bear the most remarkable relationship to Old Testament scripture. Especially what Mary said when she said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. My spirit of rejoiced in Christ my saviour. If you look at that and what Hannah said when she praised the Lord over some experience she had when the Lord gave her child Samuel. You will find there is a most remarkable resemblance.
[00:37:36] Now, this means that these people knew their bibles. They weren't just people who were bothered about ceremonial ceremonies and rites and outward things. They evidently knew their word of God. They were immersed in the things of God.
[00:37:52] I say then little did they know these dear ones that they. Their years of faithfulness couldn't have been many years for dear Mary, their years of faithfulness, in some cases had been watched and noted by the Lord himself.
[00:38:14] I am sure that they had no idea that their eyes were going to behold the prophecies of ancient times. Full filled before their very eyes. That they were going to see not only the one who would herald the Messiah, but they would see the Messiah himself. They would behold his physical form with their own physical eyes. It is amazing. I say they had little idea that they would be witnesses of the greatest miracle of all history. God made man.
[00:38:51] They were to become the witnesses of this tremendous miracle.
[00:38:58] Well, we could say so much. I think the very history of God's people had narrowed down to this little remnant. There was Zacharias and Elizabeth and John. We read of them in Luke, chapter one. We read about some of it tonight. There are Joseph and Mary. We read about them in Matthew, chapter one, verse 18. And also Luke two. One and two we read of Simeon. Now, Simeon is a very interesting character.
[00:39:29] We read of him in Luke, chapter two. And verse 26, 25, 26. Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's messiah. Isn't that wonderful? Well, now, this was not a priest. He was not a priest. As far as we can make out, Simeon, it would seem that he was an ordinary man. I mean, an ordinary man with an ordinary profession, and yet he was a godly, devout man who had an understanding of the scriptures. Now, there are many people who tell us what the spirit says to them, and I'm afraid a lot of it is nonsense.
[00:40:23] It is therefore most refreshing when you meet someone that the Lord really has said something and it happens.
[00:40:32] I often wonder what would happen to if we adopted the same method as was in the Old Testament and stoned everyone who said something would happen, and it didn't happen by the word of the Lord.
[00:40:44] I just wonder what would happen. But in actual fact, that was the way they dealt with this little subject in the old government. They stoned them. If someone prophesied something, didn't come to pass, they were stoned. It's as serious as that. If they had a dream and it was a forced stream, they were stoned. If they had a word and it was a false one, they were stoned. Tremendous, isn't it? Therefore, it is very, very well, it just shows you that when we say we're under the covenant of grace. We really are.
[00:41:14] We really are. Someone else once said, if the Lord dealt with all the Ananias and sephiroth that had been, one 10th of the church would be dead.
[00:41:24] Well, I don't know, but we can at least encourage ourselves a distance. God does speak to us. And when it's genuine, it is the most glorious thing. And here was a man who wasn't just talking. It wasn't the soul, it wasn't psychic. It wasn't just deception. Here was someone that heard the voice of the spirit of God in his own heart. And it had been revealed to him that he should not die till he had seen the Lord's messiah. And he was right. He held the babe in his arms and he saw. And it's a wonderful thing, really wonderful. Old man Simeon must have been man that knew the Lord in all that formalism and legalism. There was a man who went every day into the temple, evidently, who was as upright and pure and knew the Lord. Then there was this dear old lady called Anna. I worked it out today. She must have been at least 104.
[00:42:16] I worked it out like this. She's eight score, four score four years and four, that is 84.
[00:42:24] She lived with her husband from her virginity for seven years. She's been a widow for fourscore years and four. She lived with her husband from a virginity. That's from her marriage, from a betrothal till his death for seven years. I make that 91. That's right. I reckon that she must have been at least twelve when she married. Twelve or 13 when she married. So I make her 104.
[00:42:53] Here she was in the temple, it says, may this be an encouragement to all of you who are approaching that age. She was in. She was in the. She was in the temple. It says, day and night, verse 36. And there was Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Fanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was a great age. Having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. She'd been a widow even unto fourscore and four years. Who departed not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and supplications night and day. And what did it say? And coming up at that very hour, she gave thanks unto God and spake of him to all them that were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. What a wonderful old lady. 104. And doing the work of God. Running around the whole of Jerusalem, it seems, or at least in the temple, telling everyone that the MEssiah had come. What a wonderful old lady. Here's one of the faithful women now. I said that this period lasted 60 years, this old lady had seen the maccabean period as well.
[00:43:59] 40 years of the maccabean period she had seen, as well as the 60 years worth considering Tonight. What an amazing woman. An amazing woman. Now, I often think of this Woman. She saw all that glorious era of the Maccabees. She saw the recovery of the land in many ways. Then she saW, of course, the deterioration. She came in on the end of it, she saw the deterioration and decline.
[00:44:25] What a Faithful Woman she must have been through all those years. She had a sad Life, evidently, and yet she'd been a remarkable Woman. Now, at the very end, I have no doubt that she said it was worth it all to have seen the MEssiah. At the end, she lived to see the birth of the MEssiah, the coming of the crowds. What a wonderful thing that was. And then I think of others who are in the Remnant. Now. You may not think of these as in the remnant, but I do. I think of the shepherds now. Do you think the Lord just arbitrarily picked on a few wandering edwins who never thought about God at any time? I am quite sure this is not so. These men were the most remarkable men, for if you read, they dont speak about God, they speak about the Lord.
[00:45:09] They say, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us. Now when people speak about the Lord, they know him. You can talk about God in a general way, but when people talk about the Lord, its a more intimate, they know him.
[00:45:25] I have a feeling these shepherds were remarkable men.
[00:45:28] There was some reason why the Lord chose them. You know, there are a lot of shepherds, especially around Bethlehem in the judean hills, and lots of shepherds. Yet to this group, to this group alone, was heaven open. And they saw all the angels standing around. What a glorious sight it was. They went to Mary and they had a talk with her.
[00:45:48] Faithful men, simple, but not simple, never think that because they were shepherds, it means they were empty headed.
[00:45:57] Not at all.
[00:45:59] Their wisdom may have matched the wisdom of the wise men, but it was a different kind.
[00:46:04] It wasn't sophisticated, but it was the wisdom that comes through experience and devotion. Here were this group of men who left their sheep, as far as we know, and, and went to, to see the babe who was born part of the remnant. These are only the representatives of a remnant that was throughout the land at that time, many of whom we don't know by name. But one day we shall know them all in the glory. Be part of eternity to get to know them all. And then, of course, there are the three wise men. Now, tradition always says that one of them was black, and so on. But, of course, that is tradition.
[00:46:45] And we always call them three kings, and we don't. This is quite wrong. It's a tradition. They may have been kings, but wise men were an order. Daniel was one of the wise men, one of the wise men of the east. And we read of them in Esther. We read of them in Daniel. There were a definite order of men who could explain dreams, who had visions.
[00:47:08] Some of them were utterly false, but those like Daniel and others like that were men of God. The wise men. Three wise men came. Now, I'm not going to spend time this evening talking about those three wise men. I think we'll leave it till we come to the gospel of Matthew. But I think it's a very interesting thing. Those three wise men. Well, I mean, surely there were hundreds of wise men who were watching the scene.
[00:47:33] Don't you think? There were a lot of others who knew something about the stars? You see, they had seen his star in the east, and there was a very definite reason for it. These men watched the heavens. Now, the Hebrews were very suspicious of stargazing.
[00:47:54] They were the purists amongst the people of God, amongst the Jews, and they were very suspicious. But the Hellenists adopted very much more, were much broader in their feeling, and especially in Babylon.
[00:48:07] Many of the Jews there had taken up this matter of looking at the heavens and watching the heavens, and they had very definite names for different stars. Now, these men had seen something, and they set out on a very long journey, and they came. What remarkable men they must have been. Because, dear friend, there are a lot of people who say that they are led by the spirit of God and are not, we have to say it, they are not led by the spirit of God, and their works follow them by their fruits. You know them. These men were led.
[00:48:45] They were not only led by God to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, but they were warned by the Lord not to go to Herod. They escaped with their lives. Now, that shows that these were men in touch with God. Here were a few more of the remnant. So we have these people who were within the Hebrews, and we have people coming from the Hellenists. So we understand from this that this tiny remnant spread across the whole face of the empire. It was from end to end of the empire that this tiny remnant was found probably in every place. There were some who were awaiting the coming of the Messiah, who had an understanding of the times and probably to whom the Holy Spirit revealed that the Messiah was about to come. I believe all this has for us tremendous lessons.
[00:49:38] They were people who knew their bibles. They were people who had studied the word of God, but they hadn't just studied it with their brain, with their natural intelligence. They had come to an understanding by the enlightenment of the spirit of God, of what the word of God was saying.
[00:49:58] Now I say that is tremendous as far as we are concerned, because I do believe that before this coming again of the Lord Jesus, again I believe the Holy Spirit is producing a remnant throughout the world, a remnant of those of his own who are absolutely faithful, who are devoted to him, who are holding fast to first principles, and who are absolutely before the Lord. They are anticipating his return.
[00:50:36] This is a work of the spirit of God. And this work of the spirit of God will grow in intensity and emphasis towards the end of this age. For as the darkness grows more and more tangible and as the works of Satan become more and more evident, so the Holy Spirit will take the initiative into his own hands more and more to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.
[00:51:08] Oh, that you and I could be amongst a people like that. I'm not going to venture this evening into theories about the return of the Lord Jesus, but I am going to say this. It will be worth it all if suddenly we see his face.
[00:51:23] Why, just think of it. The kitchen sink one moment and the next moment up in the air, up in the sky with the Lord and not one of those launching pads they have at Cape Kennedy.
[00:51:39] I mean, just caught up by the power of God and forever with the Lord. How marvelous. 1 minute the kitchen sink the next minute up there, 1 minute inspecting the baptistery and the next minute in the presence of the Lord. One moment in the office, next minute seeing his lovely face. Why, my dear friend, you and I would just. I'm sure we'll be struck dumb for a moment or two when we see the Lord face to face. Why, we'll say, oh, I was moaning this morning, I was murmuring, I was down about that. I was complaining about that.
[00:52:21] Especially difficult it'll be if on your way up you found yourself next to the person you couldn't get on with.
[00:52:33] And it may not just be funny either.
[00:52:36] The Lord knows exactly what he does in these things. Ah, but you see, the fact of the matter is, will it not make it worthwhile?
[00:52:45] Then surely it will be our light to come, which was, but for a moment has worked for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Why, when we behold him face to face now, my dear friends, you won't hear a great bell, you won't hear some kind of alarm hooter ringing to warn you that the Lord is coming and that you're going in the moment. It will happen, singleman. In the twinkling of an eye it will happen and we shall be forever with the law.
[00:53:22] Then it will be worth it. All those years of preparation, all that faithful sacrifice, all that way through with him, all in a single moment of time made worth it. Why, a lifetime of drudgery will be worth it for that single twinkling of an eye, I am quite sure of it. You wouldn't exchange your kitchen sink for anything if you thought that it meant in his presence.
[00:53:52] In his presence, in the twinkling of an eye. Well, I say the producing of such a faithful remnant is the work of the spirit of God. I am not a believer that simply anyone and everyone will be caught up.
[00:54:07] Let us look for him. Let us be ready. Oh, it would be wonderful if every single one of us was caught up willy nilly whether we are walking with the Lord or not. It would be wonderful, surely. Certainly it would be the grace of God, I must confess that. But I think also there is a word of caution needed, that you and I need to watch and look and let that blessed hope purify us so that day by day, hour by hour, we're ready for the coming of the Lord. And do not think that in a moment of time you can turn over a new leaf and suddenly overnight become a devoted saint.
[00:54:46] It is years of history that are required here. Now, I'm not saying that you've got to have years and years in. No, not at all. It is the spirit and the attitude with which you've entered. You may only be a babe in Christ, but tomorrow morning you could be with us. If the Lord comes beholding him face to face, it is a question of your spirit, it is a question of the way you're looking. It is a question of your heart attitude toward him. It is a question of whether you're walking in the light.
[00:55:17] All these things are very important, you know. I. I believe that this little faithful remnant we are considering this evening are found in the book of Malachi in chapter three and verse 16, which not only tells us about the coming of the herald before the coming of the Lord in chapter three, verse one and in chapter four and.
[00:55:48] And verse six, five and six, but it tells us in chapter three and verse 16, then they that feared the Lord spake one with another. And the Lord hearkened and heard. And a book of remembrance was written before him that thought upon his name. Now, I know that we should take that in a spiritual way. And that we should take it that a book has been written.
[00:56:15] In which not only the people's names, but their conversations have been recorded. I do believe it. But, you know, I do also believe that this has been most literally fulfilled. In the cases of some of this faithful remnant. Think of Elizabeth. I have no idea she. That I have. I have every reason to believe that she had no idea that what she said was ever going to be recorded. For generation after generation to read.
[00:56:46] I have no doubt that when Mary praised the Lord, she had no idea that it was all going to one day go down into black and white. And that from, as she said herself, from henceforth, all generations called blessed.
[00:56:59] We would have called a blessed even without her wonderful prophecy of praise.
[00:57:05] But we've got it all recorded for us, these folk who went to one another. Why, think of it. Mary went off and she spent three months with her sister Elizabeth. She spent three months in the home. Don't you think they often sat down at the kitchen table and talked? Don't you think? Often they went out under the shade of the vine and sat there. Or the fig tree, whatever it was they had. And in the cool of the day, they talked about. Don't you think? When Zacharias was off duty and home from Jerusalem, they talked about the things of God, the possibility of the coming of the Lord. Why, here they were. They feared the Lord and they spake off, one to another. They had no idea that it was all being recorded a whole lot.
[00:57:51] Oh, it's a wonderful thing. You know, all our conversations in our homes are recorded. I hope they're recordable.
[00:57:59] But they're all recorded if we fear the Lord.
[00:58:03] The Lord hearkens and listens and he writes up a book. Because this kind of conversation is very precious to the Lord. It reveals faith in dark days when everything seems impossible. Here are two people talking about the glory of the kingdom to come. Isn't that faith? What are they doing? They must be mad. Look at them. Look at them. Everything's dark and black. And the Antichrist is on the throne, it seems, and so on and so forth. And here are two saints glorying about the lord and his kingdom and what's going to happen and what it's going to be like. I think at the times that Auntie Ellie used to talk about the kingdom and bring it so near. Well, I'm quite sure that it was all recorded. There was faith concretely expressed by someone who was living in drab and poor circumstances, who lived for the coming of the Lord. Well, now, don't you think that's precious to the Lord? There's faith. Faith isn't just when you sort of get all dramatic and say, I believe. It's not that faith is often expressed at your kitchen sink or in your home or in the carpenter's bench. It's expressed there. Suddenly you turn around someone who say, oh, won't it be wonderful when we're with the Lord? There's always this worth. Now, that's worth to me more than a few books on theology.
[00:59:31] Just to get that. That reaction, to get that response from that person, to hear them talking about my coming as a fact, as a fact, as real a fact as the Kremlin, as real a fact as Mount Sidon, as real a fact.
[00:59:50] That's faith.
[00:59:52] Then they that fear the Lord spake oft one to another.
[00:59:57] They were expressing the deep conviction of their heart. Oh, how wonderful that is. Well, I believe then we have it here, this faithful remnant devoted to the Lord. They knew the fear of the Lord. They had no big ideas about themselves. It was not as if Zacharias said, you know, I'm quite sure I'm going to be greatly used of God.
[01:00:24] And Elizabeth said, although we've not had any children, dear, I'm quite sure something tremendous is going to come out of our marriage.
[01:00:32] I'm quite sure that these were humble people, absolutely humble, simple people who feared the Lord and loved him with all their heart and had no idea that they were an integral part of the purpose of God. So rarely does it happen that these people with big ideas. In fact, are you so rare.
[01:00:59] It is so often when we are just quietly going about our job, how often you've got it in the book. We mustn't digress. But I think of Gideon. There he was threshing out the wheat, the youngest in his family. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, fear not, thou mighty man of valour. And of course, Gideon said, what, me?
[01:01:25] Me?
[01:01:27] I'm the least in my father's household.
[01:01:32] You see, he never thought of it.
[01:01:35] Go in this thy might, said the angel.
[01:01:39] That's the way God uses us when we're broken of our self reliance, like Moses and his great gift of leadership and speech. And then the Lord took him into the desert and broke him of everything. And when the Lord finally said, now you go Moses said, lord, I can't. I can't speak. I can't speak, Lord. Quite simple.
[01:02:05] Well, now, that's the. That is the post maccabean period. It's great lesson for us is that the Lord is producing a tiny remnant of those who are faithful and devoted to him. So he would do with us now. Let us come finally, as we come to the finish of this evening and to the finish of these intertestamental studies, let us just sum up everything that we have learned. We look back over these so called 400 silent years. We see God at work in history, preparing everything for the appearing of the messiah. Indeed, by the time of Christ's birth, there has been forged an amazing and up to that time, a unique combination.
[01:03:03] Unique.
[01:03:05] A unique combination.
[01:03:07] The Greeks have been raised up by God.
[01:03:13] The great greek era. And they have given the world their language and their culture. But not only have they given the whole world here in this map, the whole of this part, their language and their culture, but they have given to them a deep discontent, discontent in which spread through all the educated classes a deep discontent with things as they were and life as it was lived. And an eagerness for something new, something new, a reaching out, as it were, for something yet unrevealed, something that lay, that was ahead.
[01:04:03] The nations. This, I think, was their great gift to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[01:04:15] Thus God through, though the Greeks didn't know it, unified the ancient world in language and culture. From Spain to India, was understood by educated classes more or less everywhere. For the first time since the Tower of Babel, something like it has been estimated 100 million people had at least a common language. They may not have all been able to speak it well, but there was a language that was common to the whole of this empire.
[01:04:57] The Romans gave to the world their unparalleled system of law and administration, a highway system that had been unknown before, and an overall military security in an empire. Empire, which I've already mentioned, numbered some 100 million beings.
[01:05:27] Thus, by Christ's coming, the world was at rest, as it had not been for millenniums, embraced by an empire of all races, of all nations, of all tongues, free to exchange ideas as they'd never been free to do it before, within certain limits, but nevertheless given a freedom that they had never before known. To exchange ideas within certain limits. As I've said, governed by law, which was a new thing and defended by military power.
[01:06:08] This is what the Romans gave their great contribution to the world at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we come to the Jews. And the Jews gave to the world the word of God.
[01:06:20] Theirs were spiritual values, eternal spiritual values, supreme and transcendent values. They gave to the world the word of God, the living oracles of God that had been given to them as the covenant people right down through the ages, which they had carefully guarded, carefully copied, carefully preserved. Now those living oracles of God were translated into Greek and were disseminated throughout the whole of this vast empire in a way that had never before happened in all the millenniums of the history of the people of God. The word of God was confined to the people.
[01:07:05] Now, for the first time, it was disseminated as far as Gaul, and the other way as far as India.
[01:07:15] It is incredible to understand that they gave to the world the knowledge of and experience of the living God. Here were people who were different. They didn't worship idols. They didn't worship spirits. They worshiped the living God, the living God. And they had, many of them, a living experience of them.
[01:07:37] They found him in his word. They worshipped him together in hymn and psalm and chant.
[01:07:47] This had a tremendous impact upon the world. They gave to the world the revelation of God's eternal purpose. No other nation had any such idea. There was philosophy, yes, but no people gave to the world that the dynamic of a purpose that was behind all existence. The Jew gave to the world at the birth of Jesus Christ a sense of divine purpose, a sense that the world was only a visible expression of a almighty and divine mind. It was the revelation of God's eternal purpose. The jew gave to the world.
[01:08:31] Perhaps the most interesting thing as far as these studies go, the promise and anticipation of the Messiah. It was the Jew who, throughout the whole empire, spread the news more by living and by conduct and behavior than so much by word that there was a Messiah coming.
[01:08:55] Now, particularly the Hellenists took the idea of the Messiah farther than the Hebrews. For the Hebrews, he was the restorer of ancient Israel. But the Hellenists started to talk about him as a world messiah, one who was going to elevate the people of God to a position at the head of the nations, but which was going to bring all the nations into its orbit. That was their idea of the Messiah. Whereas the Hebrews, they did tend to look upon the rest as dogs, as they called them, rather below.
[01:09:27] But the Hellenists saw it as a tremendous, tremendous, great step forward of God, that he was going to bring in all the nations in this way.
[01:09:38] So through the Hellenists, particularly, there were synagogues throughout the whole roman empire and beyond, centers of Bible study, of prayer and fellowship, through which the living God could make himself known. The word of God. They translated into Greek. Their services were in Greek. And if there was another local language, the Greek was translated into the local language. In other words, they made sure that everyone could understand.
[01:10:16] So into these synagogue services came the people who were tired of idolatry, tired of the amorality of religion, tired somehow of the philosophies upon which they'd been brought up. They came into the synagogue and they heard in their own language the worship and the word of the living God. All this.
[01:10:42] Thus, in every synagogue, or nearly every synagogue, were attached numbers, sometimes great numbers, of gentile converts. These were the people who were to terms so readily to the Lord Jesus Christ. When once the gospel was preached in all these places. For you must remember, it was along these roman roads that the apostles traveled. And it was into these synagogues already there with their great numbers of gentile converts that the apostles first preached. And it was amongst them that the multitudes turned to the Lord. And there were riots and trouble, and they were pushed down and all the rest of it. That's how it all happened. So we find a secure and mighty empire with a common language and culture, a common law and a common overall government, centers of Bible study and prayer, greek speaking.
[01:11:48] Throughout the whole of this great empire, from which the truth about God and his word were disseminated, we find a discontent with things as they were, an eager anticipation of a coming messiah, and highways along which the good news could be spread. Here you've got it. The Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews. All the way through. You've got this amazing combination. Never before in the history of the world had there been such a combination of factors.
[01:12:26] Surely it had come to pass what is written now, afterward in the letter to the Galatians, that when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law. Isn't that amazing? The fullness of time. Why, never before in the history of the world had there been such a combination of factors, had there been this overall military security, had there been such a system of highways that spread from one end to the other, had there been one language which meant that at least multitudes and multitudes could understand through a common medium of communication.
[01:13:13] Never before had the jewish people, the people of God, been spread so far and yet at the same time not lost their identity by gathering together in definite places for worship and study, had actually become missionaries to the Gentiles.
[01:13:32] A thing that they'd failed to be in past years.
[01:13:38] Had there never been such a combination of factors before? No.
[01:13:44] All we can say is this.
[01:13:47] That one quiet night in a cave used for cattle and sheep in a little middle eastern town in the judean hill in the great Roman Empire, was witnessed an event that was the greatest ever seen in human history.
[01:14:18] Christ was born.
[01:14:22] Now, my dear friends, if you don't believe in God, I feel sorry for you for behind what I've said tonight, there are centuries of preparation, centuries of preparation.
[01:14:36] And do you not believe that God is the God of history? And do you not believe that God is the God of all nations, not just of the elect?
[01:14:45] Over all, here he is, silently unknown, hidden, moving the furniture of the nations about, putting this, bringing this in, getting everything ready, silently working, energetically working, century after century after century, until the moment came when there was the combination of all these factors. And at that moment, the messiah is born.
[01:15:15] At exactly the same time, he has the faithful tiny remnant he's been looking for. They're there, the instruments he wants, the people he wants, they're all there at the right time. Oh, how wonderful that is. When the Lord said to them about that passover, he said, go out, and when you go along the way, you will find a donkey foal of an ass. Bring it.
[01:15:45] How amazing it was. Who left the foal of an ass? Who left it?
[01:15:50] How did it happen? What timing, what preparation went behind it. We don't even know whose it was. Whether an angel went and told them to go and get down the street and tie up, you know, old Neddy on the corner rung and leave death.
[01:16:10] You don't know. We don't know. It's all extraordinary. All we do know is that whoever it belonged to evidently didn't feel they'd been robbed.
[01:16:19] Evidently not. Well, they were. I say, this is tremendous. I suppose, really.
[01:16:27] Strangely enough, when we look at christian books, we don't seem to find this actually mentioned. Strange enough, I've always been thrilled with just a paragraph in that Pasternak put into the mouth of one of his characters in his novel Doctor Schwago, because I think it is amazing. Listen to this.
[01:16:56] Rome was a flea market of borrowed gods and conquered peoples. A bargain basement on two tiers, earth and heaven. Slaves on one, gods on the other. Dacians, Heruleans, Scythians, Sarmatians, hyperbolic bereans. Heaviest up wheels, eyes sunk in sat. Bestialism, double chins, illiterate emperors, fish fed on the flesh of learned slaves. Beastliness convoluted in a triple knot like guts. There were more people in the world than there have ever been since, all crammed into the passages of the colosseum and all wretched. And then into this tasteless heap of gold and marble he came light footed and clothed in light with his marked humanity, his deliberate galilean provincialism. And from that moment there were neither gods nor peoples. There was only man. Man the carpenter, man the ploughman, man the shepherd with his flock of sheep at sunset. Man whose name does not sound in the least proud, but who is sung in lullabies and portrayed, portrayed in picture galleries the world over.
[01:18:21] I think that's a wonderful description of the way the Lord Jesus broke into the world we're talking about now. I said, well, then. Well, the fact. What can we learn then from all our studies in this? We can learn this. This is the supreme fact that in spite of Antichrist, in spite of the compromise of God's people, in spite of the fact that some have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. In spite of all the energy and cunning of Satan, though he is the prince of this world, and that is not denied. Christ appears, and he appears on time.
[01:19:07] Not early, not late, but in the fullness of time, God's purpose is fulfilled. The last great act of this period to nullify the purpose of God was the massacre of the innocents by Herod the great at the birth of Jesus Christ. It was the last great attempt to of Satan to destroy the messiah. Even though he was born. And it failed.
[01:19:42] It failed miserably. Christ had come.
[01:19:48] And I believe that we have a tremendous encouragement from this. In spite of everything at the end of this age, in spite of Satan himself, almost visible and apparent on every side, in spite of this man of sin who will take his place on the throne of God in the temple and give himself out as God. In spite of all that will happen at the end of this age. Christ will come.
[01:20:17] And he will come on time. He will not come early, and he will not come late.
[01:20:24] He will come in the fullness of time, absolutely on God's time. Now, to me, that's a cause for tremendous praise. Just as everything was fulfilled under the old covenant, so everything's going to be fulfilled in the new. Thank God. If it was fulfilled under the old, how much war should it be fulfilled under the new? And you and I, we shall see it. Our eyes shall see it.
[01:21:01] We apologize to the listener that the last four minutes of Lance's talk was not originally recorded ran out of tape.
