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Mere lip service, going through the motions, rote worship, where we say the words and we confess with our mouths while our hearts remain far from him. But what is noteworthy about this hymn is that Mary is not simply giving lip service to God, but this song of praise and adoration is welling up out of the depths of her being. She says, my soul.

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Magnifies the Lord. Not that God could become any greater or enlarged than he already is. But what she says here when she says, my soul magnifies him is that she is saying that my soul has been saturated.

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By a sense of the Divine.

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And by his presence and by his mercy. And so from the deepest part of my being, I want to exalt Him. That's what it means to magnify, to lift God up in exultation. There's been much debate in recent years about the appropriate type of music that we used in worship. And we even have a new vocabulary where we talk about praise music. Well, indeed, music should be filled with praise for God. And if you want to see an example of pure praise music, an example not of 7, 11, the same 7 verses sung 11 times, but praise music that is deep and rich in content, whose focus is on the majesty of God. Then here we have an example of Holy Spirit inspired praise music.

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Where this young lady says, my soul.

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Magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Now, she's not making a distinction between her soul and her spirit, like some people would like to believe, but what we have here is a common Hebrew form of poetry, which is parallelism, and in this case, synonymous parallelism, where the first line and the second line mean essentially the same thing. She says it once my soul magnifies the Lord. She says it again, my spirit rejoices God my Savior. Theologians have paid attention to the last Couple of words of the second line, the words my Savior. What does Mary mean by that? St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, believed that Mary could not have been sinless because here she confessed in this hymn her need of a Savior. And that insight that St. Thomas had may be correct, but it's not a necessary inference from the text, because the word to save and the word salvation in the Bible can mean something other than the ultimate salvation that we have from the consequences of our sins. But anytime God rescues His people and. And spares them from any calamity expresses a kind of salvation. And so the salvation that Mary may have in view here.

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Is simply the rescue from the calamity of being humiliated, being a forgotten person, being a person of insignificance, as she specifies in the next line, the sense in which God has been merciful to her. However.

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Though it's not necessarily so that she's referring to divine deliverance from sin, that idea is probably contained in the words that she's using here. And if so, what is she saying?

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Just as the child that is conceived in her womb.

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Will be called David's greater Son, and not only David's son, but also David's Lord, so the babe will not only be Mary's son.

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But he will be Mary's Savior.

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No woman in the history of the world.

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Could sing that song either before then or after that time, because only Mary was given the unspeakable privilege of being the mother of our Savior.

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She speaks initially.

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Of being overwhelmed by the tenderness of God, she says, for he has regarded the lowly state of his maitre.

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In former Christmas seasons. I've preached on the Magnificat, and I've pointed out that in that line we have contained the original Cinderella story. The Cinderella story that was not a fairy tale was not a myth, but was sober reality and truth, because God Himself looked at this lady in her low estate.

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This is Mary's experience.

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He looked at me, he noticed me, he sees me.

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And behold, henceforth all the generations of human history.

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Will call me blessed.

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Because I am blessed, supremely blessed, like no woman in human history has ever been blessed.

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For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

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And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. Here in the Magnificat, Mary mentions specifically three attributes of God. He is mighty.

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He is holy.

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And he is merciful.

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The one who has recognized her is the Almighty One, the One who possesses all power on heaven and earth, the One who can create a universe by the sound of his voice, by the power of his command, let there be. And there is the power that the angel Gabriel mentioned to Mary when she was confounded by his announcement. How can this be since I know not a man?

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Mary, it'll be because of the power of the most high God. The Almighty will overshadow you.

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For with him all things are possible.

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He is the one who is mighty. Now, notice this in passing.

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That so often in our culture.

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When people speak of God.

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They do so.

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In really meaningless terms.

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People will speak about a power, a higher power, a force greater than yourself.

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There's hardly any difference between that kind of language and the language of an animist practitioner who bows down and worships an idol made out of wood.

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Higher power.

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Force greater than yourself. What are you talking about? Gravity.

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Cosmic energy.

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Why do we do that? Because as long as we can depersonalize God.

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Make Him an impersonal force, a vague, amorphous power, we have nothing to worry about.

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Because impersonal forces will never hold you accountable for your behavior.

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You will never have to face the judgment of cosmic dust.

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But the God who is, is the God who has a name. He's not simply a power, though he has all power. He is He.

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He who is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is his name.

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Again.

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How beautiful is this description of the character of God. God, Mary is saying, is so holy.

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So transcendentally majestic.

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That his very name.

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Is holy.

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That's who he is. That's his identity. He's the Holy One of Israel. Not just mighty, not just raw force, brute power.

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But it's a holy power, a holy might.

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Holy strength.

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And his mercy is on those who fear Him.

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Don't miss the impact of those words. The one from whom we receive mercy, beloved.

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Is the Almighty One, the omnipotent One.

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The Holy One.

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How else could we exist in the presence of the Holy One except by mercy?

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But that mercy.

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Is not infinite.

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We hear the hymns that speak of God's infinite mercy, infinite grace. And I think that that's just our giving ourselves over to hyperbole. We're so amazed at the wideness and the extent of God's mercy and kindness and grace that we say, it's so wonderful, it's so great. Why it's infinite? Well, if it's infinite, it has no bounds.

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God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And he does not extend that mercy to everyone.

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Not everyone receives the mercy of a forgiving God. Some, in the final analysis, receive his justice.

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Without mercy.

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Who is it who receives the mercy of God?

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Those who fear Him.

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Now, here, it's not in the sense of fear of being frightened, like you would be by a burglar, by a ghost, but it's fear in the sense of reverence.

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In the sense of awe.

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In the sense of adoration.

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This is why we're here on Sunday morning, to come here to worship God. And that's what worship is, is to show him reverence, that we have this awe, this fear of the Lord. That is the beginning of wisdom, it's the beginning of faith, and it's the beginning of everything. And without it, there is no mercy.

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And the godless are described in Scripture as people who have no fear of God.

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The world is filled with people who have no sense of reverence for God at all.

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No respect, no awe, no adoration. They could care less. In fact, they show their irreverence by how they use his name.

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How could somebody have any fear of God, any reverence for God whatsoever, and use his name as a curse word?

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But his mercy is on everyone who fears him from generation to generation. This is not something new, this is not something unique in the life of Mary. This is something that goes on and on, from Adam to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Isaac to David, to Jeremiah.

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To Peter, to Paul.

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Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, to you and to me. Generations come and go. They pass. But throughout all the ages, one thing is constant.

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That the Lord is merciful.

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To those who revere him.

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Isn't interesting that she mentions this in the middle of a hymn.

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That is filled with reverence and filled with adoration.

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He has shown strength with his arm.

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Here we have an image of God in human form in which his arm is a symbol of his strength. I think the funniest chapter in the Bible is Chapter 11 of the book of Numbers. You may remember that as some of you who didn't memorize the Magnificat decided instead to memorize the 11th chapter of Numbers. That's the occasion where Moses is very distraught because this multitude of people that he's led in the Exodus are now complaining and bellyaching day after day. They want to go back to Egypt because now they miss their leaks and their garlic and their onions. And all they have to eat every day is this manna that God supernaturally provides for them from heaven. I've said this before. They got sick and tired of the manna. They had manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner. If they wanted to have A midnight snack. They had manna and midnight snack. They had roast manna, fried manna, manna, sauteed, popped manna, everything they could possibly do to alter the taste of this stuff. They tried and they couldn't take it anymore. They said, let's go back to Egypt. Give us Pharaoh, at least under Pharaoh, even while we were slaves, we had.

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Onions.

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Garlic leaks.

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And Moses wants to die. He said, did I give birth to these people? Did I have to listen to this? They're crying in my tent, give us meat to eat. And God said, I've heard the cries of the people, and they shall have meat to eat.

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Not for one day.

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Not for a week, but for a whole month until it's coming out of their noses and becomes loathsome to them. Be careful what you ask for when you pray. And God says, you want meat? I'll give you meat until it's coming out your nose, till you don't want to look at it ever again. And now Moses is really upset and he said, God, how are you going to do that?

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Are all our herds going to be killed to supply meat for a month to all these people? Are you going to dry up the sea with fish so that we can feed them?

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This is even more than you can do it. And God answers a question with a question.

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He said, moses.

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Has the arm of the Lord.

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Waxed short?

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Moses, who do you think you're talking to?

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Do you think I'm a God with a withered arm?

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Do you think I'm a 97 pound weakling that bullies kick sand in my face.

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As the arm of the Lord waxed short? Moses, you will see.

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If what I say comes to pass.

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Our God is a God of strength. He has shown strength with his arm. This is the Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind. And that was R.C. sproul. In Dr. Sproul's exposition of Mary's Magnificat, her song or hymn, we learn both about Mary and great truths about our God. I trust that today's sermon and the ones to follow over the next few Sundays will be a help to you as we approach Christmas, the celebration of the incarnation of our Lord and Savior. If you'd like to read through Luke's account of his birth, along with Dr. Sproul's commentary on this momentous event, we'll send you this hardcover expositional commentary as our way of saying thank you for your donation in support of Renewing youg mind@renewingyourmind.org each gift, large or small, makes this program possible and helps to serve the global listening audience. So please visit renewingyourmind.org or use the link in the podcast Show Notes and we'll send you this popular commentary to thank you for your generosity. But be quick as this offer ends at midnight.

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R.C. sproul has only begun to touch on the Mega Magnificat, so be sure to make plans to join us next time as we finish our time in this song of Mary. That'll be next Sunday here on Renewing your Mind.

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Sam.