Let us turn again together in
God's holy word to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 9 and the text
you'll find in verse 6. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Over the last few months we've
been looking at the I Am sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ and
we notice that the sayings, the statements that he gives regarding
the bread of life, the door, the light, the shepherd, are
all reflecting the character and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that work that he was come to do and what he was going
to do is the bread of life. And we saw that bread and food
is necessary for our bodies to to stay alive. We need food every
single day and Christ is the eternal bread, the bread that
came down from heaven, a spiritual food that we must partake of
him in order to have eternal life. We saw that he is the doorway
of the sheepfold, that he is the only way by which someone
may be saved, the only way that someone may enter into the Christian
Church to become a person of God, a person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Good Shepherd to lead
and to guide and direct his people, to save his people. The Good
Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. He is the light of
the world. He came to reveal He came to
reveal the way of God, the truth of God. He came to reveal to
people that they were in their sins and that they needed a saviour. He came to shed light upon the
promises of God and the mysteries of God. He came to speak of the
truth in a world filled with lies and darkness. His word was
light and he came to preach and to proclaim the gospel of light
and so the The names that are associated with the Lord Jesus
Christ are names that represent his work, names that represent
his attributes, his character. And it's no different with the
prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ as well. You and I may
have one or two names, the names which our mothers and fathers
chose for us when we were born. They don't necessarily mean anything. They may have a meaning but they
probably chose them because they liked them or that name reminded
them of somebody. But the names of the Lord Jesus
Christ, there are many. There are many names because
he has many attributes and he has many works that he is accomplishing
all at the same time. And so the Prophet Isaiah as
he looks into the future as the future is revealed to him he
sees in the midst of the darkness the darkness of their present
condition and the darkness of the future he sees a light that
was going to come. Bearing in mind Isaiah, as we
saw, the last Lord's Day is speaking some 700 years before the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is able to prophesy specific
details about the life and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That he would be in Bethlehem, that he would be born of a virgin,
that he would be called Emmanuel. God with us and the angels as
they sing regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
are testifying of this great king that would come into the
world. His name would be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. And so in this
chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah is led by the Spirit of God. He
is moved by the Spirit of God to prophesy, to tell what is
going to take place in the future. In the present context of the
chapter, it was a dark time for the Jewish nation. It was a dark
time for the people of Israel. They were under attack. They
had departed from God. They had become proud and self-sufficient,
self-confident. They have gone away from the
true and living God, the one who had given them his law and
given them his ways, told them how they should worship him.
They had departed from the ways of truth and they had been infighting
and quarrelling and God had brought judgment upon them. They had
been attacked by the Assyrians and the Syrian army. But all those attacks had not
worked. They were still proud. They were
still arrogant. And so much so they boasted to
the fact that the houses that were broken down, we were going
to build better houses. The trees that the Assyrians
cut down, we are going to plant stronger trees. And so they were
even arrogant in their judgment, in the attacks of God that they
hadn't learned their lesson. God brought a judgment upon them
to turn them to him. And instead of turning to him,
they turned to their selves. They said, we're going to be
better, we're going to be stronger, we're going to be more powerful. And so he says, OK, what you
have seen is nothing compared to what is going to come. The
Prophet had to come with this message. What the Lord has done
already is nothing compared to what he is going to do in the
future. You think you are going to build
your houses up again well you're wrong. You think you're going
to replant trees well you're wrong. He says for all this his
anger is not turned away but his hand is still stretched out. Not stretched out in mercy but
stretched out in judgment. He was not finished with the
strokes of his discipline there was going to be more to come. The people did not turn to him. The idea of any discipline is
to bring a result. Even when we discipline our children,
we expect a change. We expect them to respond with,
I am sorry. I won't do it again. We expect
some alteration in the way that they are behaving. And if they
don't change, then we see them, this is a stubborn child. They're
resisting the discipline. And it's the same with the people
of God. They weren't turning. The people turned not unto him
and they didn't seek the Lord. The wickedness, for wickedness
burneth as fire. It shall devour the thorns and
kindle in the thickets of the forests. And they shall be like
the lifting up of the smoke. And the land was going to be
filled with blackness. And so terrible was the judgment
going to be that the people were going to be taken away completely. The northern tribes of Israel
from this point were taken away. Ten tribes and they disappeared.
Only left the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin at
Jerusalem. And if we go on reading you see that even Israel itself
quarrelled among themselves. They went up to Jerusalem to
fight against each other. And this is the Lord's people.
the people that had experienced the great blessing of God in
fighting amongst each other, warring against each other, experiencing
the judgment of God because they had become worldly minded and
contaminated with the things of the world and the nations
round about them. But even in all of this judgmental
language there is hope given. In the midst of these hard prophecies
about the future, about what they were going to reap because
of the consequences of their sin, there was given a hope It's
like Isaiah looked into the blackness of the present time and looked
into the blackness of the future and saw no hope whatsoever. But then he begins to see a glimmer
of hope, a light coming. The people that walked in the
darkness, they have seen a great light. They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. He began to see something was
going to change. And as he looked into this vision,
into this prophecy, he begins to understand that this light
was going to break the yoke that was upon them. The yoke of burden. You know
the yoke is that which is carried upon the shoulder which either
you yoke together two animals or you can have a yoke that carries
water and that is going to be broken. That burden that they
were under, this light that was going to come was going to break
this burden. And it was going to be a child. a child would be born that would
change the whole scene of everything. So there was hope in the darkness.
When the Reformation took place 500 or so years ago, they said,
after darkness, light. It's the same here in the scriptures.
The dark times. There's a hope of light. And even at the time when the
Lord Jesus Christ came the people of Israel were in a dark place.
They were occupied by the Romans. There was that influence being
pressed upon them. They were captives. Although
there were some freedoms it was a dark time. But the Lord Jesus
Christ came at that time. The light into the darkness. Those who were in Galilee, they saw a great light. So they were given hope in the
darkness. And it's not a hope that we know
about hope. When we say we hope so, we are
not sure that what we hope to happen will actually take place.
There is no certainty to our hope. We may say we hope to do
this tomorrow. We may say we hope to meet up
with family at Christmas time. There is an element of doubt
because we know the frailty of our lives. We know that things
can change. We can wake up in the morning, we can be ill and
all of our plans can change. Someone can be taken in the moment
in the blink of an eye and all of our plans change. so when
we say hope there's an element of doubt in our minds as to the
thing whether it is going to take place or not. We can even
hope that we have a service this afternoon but when God's people
speak about hope there's no we hope so, there's no wishy-washiness
about it, it is a certainty that when God brings hope, when God
gives the people hope that the light will come into the darkness,
that means there is without doubt that God is going to do something,
that God is going to work in a way that will change and alter
the whole course of the people of Israel and even the people
of the Gentiles, that God is going to work in such a way that
the whole of human history is going to be altered. And so it's
not a hope without any confidence. It is a hope with full assurance
that God is going to work. We can expect and we can be confident
in what God has said because God's word cannot be altered
and it cannot be changed. It is an eternal word and therefore
it is unmovable and unchanging. We can hope in it, we can trust
in it. And so when the prophet speaks, there is going to be
a child that is born. That child is going to be born. That's why he speaks in the present
tense. For unto us a child is born. as though it's happened already
because it can't be altered. When God has put together a plan that plan
can never change. When he chose a people before
the foundation of the earth to call to himself his own people
they were as They were as well as saved. They were in his purposes, it
was done. But Christ had to be born to
fulfil the purposes of God, to pay the punishment for their
sin. So God's word is unchanging.
And so when he says, for unto us a child is born, that will happen and it won't
change. And that the prophecy was fulfilled
in a dark time. Remember when Mary and Joseph
went to the temple in Luke chapter two and they came to Simeon In
verse 25 it says, Behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon and the same man was just and devout waiting
for the consolation of Israel. He read this on Sunday. The comfort
of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him and it was revealed
unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before
he had seen the Lord's Christ. he came by the spirit into the
temple and when the parents brought in the child Jesus for to do
after him the custom of the law then took him up in his arms
and blessed God and said now lettest thou thy servant depart
in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation
which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light
to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled
at those things which were spoke of him. Simeon was waiting for
the fulfillment of this promise. He had been told by the Holy
Spirit of God that he would not die until he had seen the fulfillment
of this promise. And as Christ was brought into
the temple, it is revealed to him that this little baby this
son that has been given this child that has been born he is
going to be the one the light of the light to lighten the gentiles
and the glory of the people israel And so this was dark times in
which the Lord Jesus Christ was born. This light to lighten,
this light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people of
Israel. And he came as a child. And we know he had to come as
a child to save his people. He had to
be born of a woman born under the law. As his people had broken
the whole law of God so he had to come and to be under his own
law to fulfil and to complete the whole law of God and so the
way into this world is by birth. And so the child had to be born.
The Lord Jesus Christ had to be born of the Virgin Mary into
this world so that he may live a perfect and an upright life
to bring light, to bring joy, to bring hope, to turn a people from darkness
to light, to free them from sin and from Satan and from the slavery
that sin brings. A child is born and a son is
given. Throughout the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is spoken of as light. He said that he is
the light of the world. And we saw as the people of Israel
were they brought out of Egypt they were led by night by a light. You remember when the Lord Jesus
was born and the angels came from heaven there was a great
light. When the wise men came from the
east they were led by a star. And the light came and lighted
upon the place where the Lord Jesus Christ was and they were
filled with joy. And so they were led by the light. When Christ came it was the light
shining into the darkness of this world to lead people back
to God. And they had to come as a child
that had to be born into this world. but he was given. The scripture tells us in John
3.16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son. And so Christ was given. Every child that is born into
this world is born at a standard by which their parents
live. some into a noble birth, some
into poverty, some into sadness and hardship, some middle class. And so that child can't help
as to what degree or status they are born into. But this baby,
this child was going to be born of noble birth. Yes his mother
Mary and Joseph were poor. Yes they were only able to offer
two turtle doves. Yes they came from Nazareth a
despised and a rejected place but his lineage his ancestors
were kings and his heavenly father the king of kings and so he was
going to hold the government upon his shoulders. He was going
to be born of a high birth, high ranking. In the army you can
tell someone's rank by the patches on their shoulders. It declares whether they're an
officer or a lieutenant or whatever by their shoulders. and the government shall be upon
the shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ of a high-ranking birth, a king. Not only a high-ranking, he shall
also hold his people upon his shoulders. He shall
bear them up, lest they fall. He will be a man of strength.
A man of ability. A man of wisdom. A man who came
to conquer. To gain victory. Remember the
children of Israel were in a low place. They needed a great warrior
to come. And the great warrior came, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture tells us he
came to his own people and they rejected him. came to Jerusalem upon an ass. Behold your king comes lowly
and upon an ass. He was a king. He was a despised
and a rejected king and even today the Lord Jesus Christ is
king. Yet he is a despised and a rejected
king. But that doesn't make him any
less of a king just because the majority disregard him. He is
still of a high-ranking birth. He is still King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. And one day, even though the
majority reject him, one day every knee shall bow at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ and confess the Lord Jesus Christ
is Lord. That is even you. If you don't
bow today you will bow someday to the Lord Jesus Christ because
he is the upholder of the government. This is Jesus, the King of the
Jews. The government shall be upon
his shoulders and his name shall be called. We know His name. We shall call Him Jesus. For
He shall save His people from their sins. He was a deliverer. He came to deliver His people
from the consequences of their sin, what they deserved to have
happen to them. He came to take them from the
darkness to the light, from the broad road that leads to destruction
and put them onto the narrow way that leads to life. His name
shall be called Jesus. But His other name shall be called
wonderful sometimes we use that word when
we are looking at something we say it is wonderful it is amazing
it's a wonderful sunset or the children bring you some work
you say it is wonderful a wonderful achievement and the name of Christ
his name shall be called wonderful he has a greater meaning to it
than you and I use the word miraculous it is a miracle it is full of
wonder and so this child that they were looking for his name
was going to be called a miracle his name was going to be called
full of wonder and we see that in his birth a miraculous birth we see that in his life a miraculous
life, a life without sin, spotless, undefiled, Lamb of God. We see it in his teaching, his parables. We see it in his
miracles. We see him providing. We see
him raising the dead. We see him stilling the storms. We see it in his death. As he
died on the cross, there was a darkness. Thousands of people
were crucified, yet there was no darkness. Yet when Christ
was crucified, it was a miracle. It was wonderful. As he paid
the price for the sins of his people, as his father punished
him for the sins of his people, it was wonderful. It was a miracle,
full of awe. We see it in His resurrection. He is not here. He is risen. Come and have a look at the place
where He lives. His name shall be called Wonderful.
He's not here. We see it even today at the right
hand of the Father as the High Priest, the wonderful, full of
compassion High Priest. His name shall be called Wonderful. counsellor. In some Bible versions
these two are put together. In our version it's split wonderful
counsellor. In some versions it's written
wonderful counsellor. A counsellor is someone who offers
advice and guidance and the Lord Jesus Christ is the good shepherd
of his people. He is a counsellor. He is a leader. He guides them and directs them.
His words are full of wonder. His words are full of wisdom,
truth and grace. He counsels at his people. If you remember, when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke,
He said, never a man spake like this man. In Psalm 119 verse 103 it says, How sweet are thy words
to my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through thy precepts I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. And so as the counsellor of his
people, as the one who gives them advice, the words that he
speaks to them, they are sweeter than honey. He speaks to them,
oh, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Has anyone ever heard those words
spoken to you? Have you felt yourself to be
so in the darkness, so unclean, so defiled, so sinful? And then the Lord Jesus Christ
comes and speaks to you. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. Your sin, which
is so many, are washed away. Those words are sweeter than
honey. Because they are the truth. They are powerful words. They
are words of comfort to the broken hearted. They are words of comfort
to those who are downcast in the depths of their sin. He's
able to elevate them with a word of comfort. A good counsellor
is able to bring someone up out of the depths of despair by offering
them wise counsel. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
offers wise counsel to his people. He is wonderful. He is the counselor. But more than that he is the
mighty God. Now if this was written about
anybody else it would be blasphemous. Yet this child that was going
to be born was going to be wonderful miraculous.
full of wisdom, full of counsel and he was going to be the mighty
God. God manifest or revealed to us
in the flesh the Lord Jesus Christ in the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things
were made by him and without him was not anything made that
was made. In him was life and the life
was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. And so we see in the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ that he is the mighty God. It's
only God who can forgive sin. It is only God who could raise
the dead. It's only God who could still
and speak to the storm. And so he was God. And he is
God, the mighty God, full of power, full of authority. And he is the everlasting father. The everlasting father speaks
of his character. The character of Christ was that
of a good father. a child filled with compassion
and concern. We see the Lord Jesus Christ,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We see him weeping
with those that weep. We see him having compassion
upon the multitude and feeding and providing for them just as
a good father provides for his children. He has that care for
them. He has that authority over them. He has that compassion for their
providential needs, the things of life and he has that concern
for their spiritual welfare. And so the Lord Jesus has the
the attributes of a compassionate father but also the prince of
peace. His kingdom. He was going to
come as a king and he was going to rule over the kingdom of light
and his kingdom would have no end. It would be an eternal kingdom. He was going to sit on the throne
of David forever and ever and ever. and his kingdom was going
to be a kingdom of peace. In the Second World War they said
that this was going to be the war that ends all wars. Man,
people have been striving for peace in a world that is filled
with people who are sinful and that can never find peace.
This war that was going to end all wars was the Second World
War. And it didn't end all wars. When Putin invaded Ukraine, they
were shocked. How could this happen in our
day? That a nation could just invade
another one? I thought that we were all in
peace. But this world in which we live
in will never, ever have peace. Nobody loves God with all of
their heart, soul and mind and nobody loves their neighbour
as themselves and therefore we can never have peace because of sin. Jesus says you would hear of
wars and rumours of wars and these things must come This world
will keep warring and warring and warring until the Lord Jesus
Christ comes. Yet his kingdom, the kingdom
of light, what he rules is a kingdom of peace. Peace with God. We said recently that he is the
doorway. The barrier that has been broken
down is sin. The access that you and I have
can only come when sin is removed and peace is restored between
you and God. And so Christ came to bring peace
between you and God by cleansing you of your sin and by making
a way by which you can approach your maker. Peace. But He came also to give peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace. Only believers are able to know
true peace in this troubled world. We've been given the comfort
of the Holy Spirit. And he's able to calm the storm
of our minds, the storms of our lives, and he's able to bring
peace. Remember the Lord Jesus, when
he spoke to the storm, he said, peace, be still. And there was
a great calm. He is the Prince of Peace. He's
brought about peace between God and man. He's brought about peace
in his church, reconciliation. and he's taking his people to
the place of peace, which is heaven. A place of no more sorrow,
no more sadness, no more wars, no more hatred, but a place of
peace. This world, the scripture tells
us, will be burned up and rolled up as a scroll, but the Lord
will take his people to be with him forever and ever. And so
this child that has been born, that was going to be born, and
the government was going to be upon his shoulders, he was going
to be of a great royal birth, king of kings and lord of lords.
His name was going to be called Wonderful, a miracle. He was
going to be the great counsellor. the mighty God, the everlasting
Father and the Prince of Peace. And we see that all unfolded
in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as the angels sing of
his birth, as the wise men and shepherds come and worship him,
as he lives his perfect life, as he dies upon the cross, as
he rises again on the third day and ushers in his kingdom, as
he ascends up to heaven, as he gives us his Holy Spirit. We see all of this. in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus, every knee shall bow, whether in heaven or in earth. May it be then to us, for unto
us, for unto me, a child has been born. May he be our saviour
this morning. Amen. Just a reminder that our afternoon
service is at 2.30. Now let's sing our final hymn
from Hymns for Worship number 157. 157. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit. O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Hymns for Worship,
157, Tune 641. What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to have. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. ? We often forget ? ? Oh, what
needless strength we have ? ? Oh, because we do not carry ? ? Everything
to God in prayer ? trials and temptations. Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the ? To find our friends so faithful
? ? Who will hold us ever sure ? ? Jesus, Jesus of every race
and creed ? Come back with a load of care. Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll take a shield
you. You will find a solace. Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
thank Thee for the gift of Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
For unto us a child is born, for unto us a Son is given, and
we pray that we may know Him as our Saviour, that the light
of the Gospel may shine within our dark hearts, that we may
see Christ as who He is, our Saviour, our Jesus. We pray that
they'll be with us in the interval of worship. Do be with the children,
especially as they prepare to recite their text to us this
afternoon. We pray, Lord, that thy name
may be glorified in all that we say and all that we do. Do
dismiss us with thy blessing and now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, do rest and abide with
us each now and forevermore. Amen.