Let us turn once again to the
word of God in the portion of scripture where we read and in
particular in the ninth chapter there in the book of the prophets
Isaiah I want to direct your attention this evening to the
words that we find in verse 6. We'll read verses 4, 5 and 6
and remind ourselves somewhat of the historical setting, the
context in which our text is found. For thou hast broken the
yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his
oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior
is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but this shall
be with burning and fuel of fire. 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. As I said previous to our reading
in chapter 8 and the beginning of this ninth chapter, at this
time, shortly after the death of the king Uzziah, when Ahaz is settled upon the throne
of Judah, there is opposition. And the opposition comes from
Israel and from Syria. After the division of the kingdom
upon the death of Solomon, the ten tribes have rebelled against
the house of David. It was just little Benjamin together
with Judah who remained faithful to David's line. But those ten
tribes turned away and chose themselves themselves a king
in Jeroboam the son of Nebat and he established his kingdom
with the capital at Samaria and it was those in the north, it
was that northern kingdom that was now in league with the Syrians
against Judah that God would come and God would appear for
Judah and he would overthrow all those machinations of their
enemies and he would do it by means of the Assyrians. great armies of Assyria would
come and they would attack from the north so they would fall
upon the northern kingdom of Israel and all that association
between Israel and Syria would be to no purpose as we see there
in verse 9 of chapter 8 associate yourselves O ye people and ye
shall be broken in pieces And give ear, all ye of far countries,
gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves,
and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word, and it shall
not stand. For God is with us. God is with little Judah. And Judah should therefore be
trusting in God. But alas, what does Judah do?
They look elsewhere. They look to enter into alliances
themselves. They imagine that they might
yet enter into some sort of alliance even with the Assyrians, but
that would be followed. This is the message of the prophet. Here in chapter 8 and verse 12
he says, Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom these people
shall say a confederacy? neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he
shall be for a sanctuary." It was to the Lord God that they
should have looked. Those Assyrians, yes, they would
fall on the northern kingdom of Israel and destroy Samaria,
they fall upon the Syrians, destroying Damascus also. But they would
also proceed south, they would come even against Judah itself. But God would yet protect Judah
against these, their enemies. And so there in that 8th chapter,
verse 7, Now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up upon them
the waters of the river strong and many even the king of Assyria
and all his glory he shall come up over all his channels and
go over all his banks he shall pass through Judah He shall overflow
and go over, He shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching
out of His wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel."
As I say, God will not permit those Assyrians to be triumphant. There would be a deliverance,
and so it came. It came, as we read later, in the days of that
good king Hezekiah. You turn to chapter 37. What
do we read there? Chapter 37 and verse 33, Therefore
thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall
not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come
before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way
that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come
into this City, saith the Lord, for I will defend this city,
to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake."
God was the one then whom they should have been looking to.
This is something of the context in which the word was first given. to Judah by the mouth of the
Prophet Isaiah. But we know that there is a far
deeper significance. There is a spiritual meaning
to these words. And when we come to this ninth
chapter, we begin to see it quite clearly. Because what we read
here in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 9 concerning Zebulun and Naphtali. Now, when those Assyrians came,
this is where they would have first entered into that land
of promise, the northern tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, that's
where they would have struck first. It would have been a grievous
thing when they came and fell upon that northern kingdom of
Israel. But see how in the New Testament
what we read here in chapter 9 and verses 1 and 2 is specifically
applied to the Lord Jesus Christ and his ministry. In the Gospel
according to Matthew, there in chapter 4, Verse 13, we read of the Lord
Jesus leaving Nazareth. And leaving Nazareth he came
and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast in the
borders of Zebulun and Naphtalim, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Esaias the prophet. Esaias being simply the Greek
form of the Hebrew name Isaiah. Isaiah the prophet speaks saying
the land of Zabula and the land of Nathalim by the way of the
sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles the people which
sat in darkness saw great light and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death light is sprung up. The preaching of
the Lord Jesus the dawning of the glorious light of the Gospel,
and so much of the Lord's ministry was of course in that region
of Galilee. And so when we come into chapter
9, we're not to confine our understanding of the ministry of this prophet
in terms of the historic situation that pertained in the days when
he first spoke this word. He is speaking of greater things.
He is speaking to us of the Lord Jesus. All these things are fulfilled
in Christ. And here in these verses, and
we read these three verses because there's a sort of ascending scale.
Verses 4, 5, and 6 all begin with the same word, for thou
hast broken the yoke of his burden. For every battle of the warrior
is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, for unto us
The Child is born unto us, the Son is given. There is this ascending
scale in what is being declared by the Prophet in these verses
and all reaches its climax in verse 6. And this speaks to us,
of course, of the Incarnation. And that's the first thing I
want us to consider tonight, the Incarnation of the Son of
God. For unto us A child is born unto
us a son is given and observe that he is indeed the eternal
son of God. The eternal son of God. How we
do well always to take account of the detail in God's words. The great beauty of our authorized
version of course in many ways is the literalness of the rendering. What do we have here? We read
of a child being born, but we read of a son being given. And that's significant. Unto
us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. He did not become the son of
God at his birth. He was and always is the eternal
Son of God. Remember how He speaks in Proverbs
8 where we see Him set before us as the wisdom of God? He says, when there were no depths
I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. He was brought forth from Eternata. He is eternally begotten. He
is the eternal son of the eternal father. We know of course that
there could be no eternal father except there be an eternal son. As John says, "...whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the
Son." To abide in the doctrine of Christ is to abide in His
eternal Sonship. Then we have the doctrine of
God, then we have the Father and the Son. He is Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Father in truth and in love. And now this was
really the reason why the Jewish people hated him and despised
him and rejected him. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. In John chapter 5 where he performs
that miracle where he heals the lame man and tells him to take
up his bed and walk. Now that man's limbs are restored. He does as the Lord says, but
what do the Jews do? They turn against him. They say
that he broke the Sabbath. He did no such thing. But more
than that, the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not
only had broken the Sabbath day, but said that God was his Father,
making himself equal with God. He said that God was his Father. And they knew what that meant.
They said he was guilty of blasphemy when he called himself the Son
of God. They would have stoned him. They
would have taken up stones and stoned him to death because they
reckoned he was a blasphemer. There in John chapter 10 and
verse 33 The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we stole
thee not, but for blasphemy, and because of thou being a man,
makest thyself God. He made himself God when he said
that God was his father. And this is the charge that they
bring against him when they set him before the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate. We have a law, they said, by
our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Oh, but that's what he is. He is the eternal Son of God. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his Son. Made of a woman, made under
the law, unto us a Son is given. This is the eternal Son. All
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. His
only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life. Remember the confession
that the Ethiopian eunuch makes. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. and Philip baptizes him. That's
what we have to come to, to believe that. Do we believe that? That
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Eternal Son of the Eternal
Father. Here it is, the Incarnation.
The Incarnation of the Son of God. And yet Him, who is God's
Eternal Son, is here declared also to be a real man. Unto us
a child is born. Unto us a child is born. It is
God now manifest in the flesh. That's the great mystery, is
it not? The mystery of godliness. As Paul says there in that great
statement in the 16th verse of 1 Timothy chapter 3, without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God. was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into
glory. Why? It's the sum and substance
of all true religion, is it not, that we have in that short verse.
And that's where it begins. God was manifest in the flesh. And we have it. there previously in chapter 7
verse 14 therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign God's word
to Ahaz the Lord himself shall give you a sign behold a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel
and we have the name there again in Verse 8 of chapter 8, the end of that verse, O Emmanuel. We have the same word really
at the end of verse 10 in that chapter, but instead of just
being transliterated, it's translated into English, God is with us.
In the original, the end of verse 8 and the end of verse 10 in
chapter 8 are identical. O Emmanuel, literally means God
is with us. And how is God with us? He is
present as a man, a real man. The language of the angel when
he comes to Mary. She was a virgin. She was betrothed
to Joseph, but she had never known a man. The angel comes
to announce that she's going to give birth to a child. How
can this birth? He tells her the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. The power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Thing
that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. How
interesting it is. It's that Holy Thing. It's not
a person. It's the human nature, it's the human body, the human
soul, that is to be joined to the eternal Son of God. God is
three persons. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit. What was conceived was not a
person. Here is the person, the Son, that is given. What is happening
there, there is by the Holy Spirit the forming of that human nature, that holy thing, and it is joined
to the eternal Son of God, the Word. Who is the Word of God? In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word
says John was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld
his glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father full of grace and truth. He's a real man. This is what we have here. It's
a mystery. We cannot begin to explain any of this. How can we understand these things?
Our God contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man. We sang it just now in that lovely,
that remarkable hymn of Charles Wesley's. And look at the language
that we have here in the text. It says, unto us. The child is born unto us. The
son is given. It's unto us. or the message
of those angels as they're watching over their flocks there outside
of Bethlehem. What does the angel say unto
you? Unto you, that is you men, is
born in the city of David, this day, a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord, it's unto you. He comes, He identifies with
men. for as much then as the children
were partakers of flesh and blood, likewise he takes part of the
same, says the apostle. He becomes a man, a real man.
He doesn't take on him the nature of angels. He takes upon him
the seed of Abraham. And he identifies with man as
a sinner. That's a wondrous thing, is it
not? We read in Romans 8 verse 3 of God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. Now he's in the
likeness of sinful flesh but he himself of course is preserved
free from every taint of original sin. This is the miracle of the virgin
birth, is it not, that we just spoke of. Oh, the angel says
to Mary, that sinful woman, she was a virgin, yes, but she was
a sinner. In the Magnificat she rejoices in God, her Saviour. She knew she had need of a Saviour.
And yet what is conceived by the Holy Ghost in her womb is
holy. It is a human nature that is
preserved from every taint of original sin. Adam and Eve were
created perfect when they came from the hand of God in their
pristine state they were holy holy man, holy woman but both
Adam and Eve sinned and as a consequence of that sin Adam then bore a
man in his own likeness That's what it says, the birth of Seth,
the man was in his own likeness. Adam was a sinner, Seth was a
sinner. And so, sin has come down all the generations, has
it not? Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. How can he be clean,
that he's born of a woman? Well, David knew it. The man
after God's own heart, he speaks of how he was conceived in sin.
and shapening iniquity we're all sinners but there is this
one man this real man who was preserved from every taint of
original sin in that miracle of the virgin birth that great
mystery of the incarnation and this man who was sinless in every
part of his life holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from
sinners and made higher than the heavens and yet He comes
to identify with sinners He is made in the likeness in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. Oh, it doesn't take upon Him
the nature of angels we see Jesus, Paul says, who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. This is the
purpose of His coming, is it not? He is born to die. He is born to die. He becomes
a man in order that he might make that one sacrifice for sins
forever. He comes to die for sinful men
and women. So let us turn from the incarnation of the Son of God
and say something in the second place with regards to the obedience,
the obedience of the Son of God. being found in fashion as a man,
we're told. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He says to the Jews in the course
of his ministry, as we're told in John's Gospel, my meat is
to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. He has a work and he must finish
the work. And what is that work? Well,
that work is to honour and to magnify the Lord of God. He's
not only made of a woman, he's made under the law. And in his
life he is going to be subject to that Holy Lord of God and
he's going to obey it in every one of its precepts, all of its
commandments. and he's not only going to honor
it in respect to its precepts, but he will also, by his death,
honor the same law in terms of all its penalties. He will bear
the punishment that the law, the holy law demands, the soul
that sinneth it shall die. The wages of sin is death. He
is obedient unto death. even the death of the cross,
or he will finish the work. He will finish the work. So he
says to his father there in that 17th chapter of John, I have
glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work that
thou gavest me to do. And as he hangs upon the cross,
he utters that triumphant cry, it is finished. and he commends
his spirit into the hands of God, yields up the ghost, yields
up the spirit. He dies. And that's the Lord
Jesus finishing the work that the Father had given him to do. And here we read of him. Unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. The Puritan commentator Matthew Poole says here there
is an allusion to the cross which was laid upon him, laid upon
his shoulders. The way to his kingdom, the way
to his government is by the cross. There can be no crown without
the cross. And we read of him, do we not,
bearing his cross. in John 19 and verse 17, and
he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place
of Askar, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. Oh, there
we see Him. There we see Him. So beautifully
it's spoken of in the hymn that we're going to sing presently,
that lovely hymn, of those Ingamites, brethren, Allen and Batten, 950. What objects this, which meets
my eyes without Jerusalem's gate, which fills my mind with such
surprise as wonder to create? Who can it be that groans beneath
a cross of massy wood, whose souls all wound in pains of death
and body bathed in blood? Is this the man? Can this be
He, the prophets have foretold? Should with transgressors numbered
be, and for their crimes be sold? Yes, now I know, tis He, tis
He, tis Jesus, God's dear Son, wrapped in humanity to die for
crimes that I had done. The Lord Jesus, bearing His cross,
how this is that that is laid upon him, laid upon his shoulders. Or he says to those two on the
road to Emmaus on the very day of his resurrection from the
dead. You remember how we have the record there in Luke chapter
24 and their eyes are holed and they don't recognize him, they
think he's some stranger. And he says to them, ought not
Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory.
Lord, it is how Christ enters into His glory by that that is
laid upon Him. The government shall be upon
His shoulder. And so He enters into His mediatorial
kingdom, that one to whom all authority in heaven and earth
is given. This is how He comes to reign
now as the Great Mediator. why he is that martyred man,
that glorified man who is now in heaven at God's right hand
ruling and reigning head over all things to the church which
is his body and the fullness of him that filleth all in all
and here as I said in this chapter we have a prophecy of the Lord
Jesus Christ Isaiah speaks of Christ You hardly need me to
tell you that Isaiah is the great evangelical prophet. Why, the
book is full of Christ. And here we see something of
the intensity of his sufferings, do we not, in the context? Look
at verse 5. For every battle of the warrior
is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but this shall
be with burning and fuel of fire. Why, we sang of it just now in
our second hymn, do we not? that great warrior, oh that great
warrior, the intensity of his sufferings, the spiritual nature
of the conflict that he has to enter into, why he is doing warfare
with sin and with satan, and will you profess his name, why
Remember how Paul reminds us we wrestle not against flesh
and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Why is that true of those who
are the followers of Christ? How much more? How much more
is that true of the Lord Jesus Christ? He engaged in all the
powers of darkness and he vanquished sin and he vanquished Satan and
then dying and laid in the tomb rising again from the dead he
vanquishes death itself it's Christ that's spoken of the weapons
of our warfare Paul says are not carnal but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds even those strongholds of Satan. Again, look at the context, verse
4. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff
of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. Now, here, of course, there is
clearly a reference to Gideon's victory over the Midianites.
And remember how the army of that man, that judge, raised
up at the time when the Midianites were overrunning the land and
the Israelites were completely overwhelmed. And this man is raised up to
be a judge, a deliverer. And then we read how his army
is reduced. and he finishes up with just
300 men. 300 men against all the hosts
of the Midianites. Why was it so? Well we read there
in the beginning of Judges chapter 7, lest Israel says God, lest
Israel want themselves against me saying mine own hand hath
saved me. It has got to be evident that
the great deliverance is God's deliverance. It's not Gideon,
it's not the armies of the Israelites, it's God. As in the defeat of
those Midianites. And thinking again of the context
here, as in the defeat of all the host of the great armies
of the Assyrians, so too in the defeat of sin and of Satan, it's
God. It's God. It's the work of God.
And how does Christ accomplish this glorious work? How does
he conquer? Look at that statement that we
find in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 4. He was crucified, it says,
through weakness. He was crucified through weakness. All the strength of God is owned
by all, but who is weakness now? the weakness this is the mystery
you see it's all mystery really think of what we have here in
this child born this son given we have a little child who's
all weakness a little child who is utterly dependent upon his
mother like all newborn babes and yet that little newborn infant
is the eternal son of God and he's never anything less than
that. His shoulders held up heaven and earth when Mary held up him. The government is laid upon his
shoulders. This is remarkable, is it not?
But this is the way of God. How does the Lord Jesus overcome
all the powers of darkness How is it that he triumphs so gloriously
over sin and over Satan? It is by the crucifixion and is crucified through weakness.
That's the language of Scripture. For thou hast broken the yoke
of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his
oppressor, as in the day of Midian. All these burdens these oppressors. Martin Luther says, the yoke,
the staff, the rod set forth the deadly enemies who rule over
us as fallen creatures. What are these enemies? Sin,
the law, death itself. How sin as a taskmaster comes
and troubles us with the staff of the law with that rod of death. Where no law is, we're told,
there is no transgression. Where no law is, no transgression. Sin is the transgression of the
law. What are the things the law says?
It says to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. all these mighty enemies, you
see, the sting of death. Paul says the sting of death
is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But the Lord Jesus is
that one who is spoken of here in verse 4. He's broken the yoke
and the star and the rod. There's a very interesting verse
that we have just a little further on in chapter 10. and verse 27. Look at what it says, "...he
shall come to pass in that day..." What is that day? It's the great
day of Christ. "...he shall come to pass in
that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder,
and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed
because of the anointing." Ah, there it is. because of the anointing. Isn't that a reference to the
Lord Jesus Christ? The Anointed One. The Anointed
One. The Messiah. The Christ. He is
that One, you see, who has answered all the demands of the Holy Lord
of God. Christ has redeemed us. from
the curse of the Lord, being made a curse for us, for it is
written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Lord Jesus
is that one, who is obedient. He is obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, and so he has accomplished a great salvation. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory. O thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He goes on here
in the text to speak of that nine You observe how the name
is singular and yet there are many names that follow. And His
name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of
His government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne
of David and upon His kingdom to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forevermore. And then the zeal of the Lord
of hosts will perform this. Why this has all been performed?
It's written of here in prophetic scripture some 700 years before
the birth of Christ. It's all been fulfilled. He has
come. He has come and He has accomplished a great salvation.
He has finished the transgression. He has made an end of sin. He
has made reconciliation for iniquity. He has brought in everlasting
righteousness. He has sealed up the vision and
the prophecy. He has anointed the most holy.
It's all done. in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ and here in this name that we read of at the end of
the text oh we see something do we not of the wonder of that
office that he occupies he is called wonderful counsellor the
mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace well the
Lord willing we'll go on to consider these titles given to Christ
on Thursday evening. But I do want today to leave
you with a little book. You're probably aware that next
year 2017 of course marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant
Reformation. 31st of October in 1517 Luther
nailed his 95 theses to the church door there in the castle at Wittenberg
and so commenced that great movement which we know as the Protestant
Reformation, the greatest outpouring of the Spirit of God since the
days of the Apostles. But I want to leave with you,
I have a number of these Martin Luther's exposition of Isaiah
9 verses 4 to 7, so please afterwards do make sure that you receive
one of these and read how Martin Luther opens up this portion
so much better than ever I could have opened it up, but the Lord
be pleased to bless his word to us. Amen.