I'd like you to turn and keep
your Bibles open in Isaiah. I want to just look at those
verses. I was sitting on the veranda with my dear wife on
Friday morning and it was just remarkable. It was still. There was no noise from the factories.
There was no traffic noise. There seemed to be nothing. And
it's remarkable, isn't it? As much as there is so much extraordinary
idolatry tied up in so much of what passes for Christianity
in this world, it is remarkable that the Lord has caused there
to be a day set aside where there is a cessation of so many other
activities. We, of course, know the Prince
of Peace and we love to proclaim him and I want us to spend a
little bit of time this morning just looking at this extraordinary
description of the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 6 it begins,
doesn't it, and multitudes around the world have sung it and I
trust that we can sing it with eyes of faith and hearts of love
for him and gratitude for his grace. For unto us Isaiah 9 6
unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and the government
shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful
counsellor, 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. Everything that happens is
ordered by our God. And to establish it with judgment
and with justice. Our God is is right and just
from henceforth even forever. And I love how this little passage
finishes. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform it. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts.
You might recall that the zeal of the Lord Jesus Christ for
the honor of his glory and his father's glory in the temple
caused him to take a cord and make a cord of whips and drive
out those money changers. And he did it at the beginning
of his ministry and he did it at the end. And they asked him,
where do you get this authority from? He got his authority from God. In verse 6, I want us to first
look at the us, for unto us. Whenever there's an us in the
scriptures, I want to see where I fit in. Whenever there's a
blessing in the scriptures, I want to make sure that I'm a part
of it. I don't like missing out on anything. When it comes to
the blessings of God, I want to be greedy. The Lord says,
open your mouth wide and you'll feel it. Expect great things
from our God. He only does, Psalms 71. right now in this world. Unto
us. So who are the us? Obviously
there's a sense of course in which the incarnation of the
Lord Jesus Christ has an impact in one way or another on all
of the world, and the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ has
a particular impact upon Jerusalem. But it's only the us that call
him Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. It's
only the us who find him the Prince of Peace. It's only the
us who see that the government of all things is upon their shoulders.
It's only the us. I want to be part of the us.
So let's just briefly look back into chapter 1 of Isaiah. We'll
see in verse 9 that the us is a very small remnant. It says,
Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant. The children of God, at any particular
time in all of history, have never been in the majority in
this world. They've always been a remnant.
You know what a remnant is, don't you? You go into the carpet shop
and you find the remnants. You never find them in the front
of the store, do you? The remnants are hidden around
in the corner at the back, aren't they? They're passed aside, the
remnants. Put aside. You can buy them cheaply. You can ignore them without any
cost, can you? A remnant. Unto us, as we read
in Isaiah 9.6, a child is born. Unto us. What are the us? Who are the
us? Let's turn to verse 18. The us have an extraordinary
characteristic which flows throughout the scriptures and throughout
all of history. The one thing that is common
to all genuine believers is a deep and real sense of their utter
unworthiness before God and their utter sinfulness. Look what it
says in Isaiah 1 verse 8. And come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet. Obviously the
scarlet and the red, though they And though they be red like crimson,
obviously those colours are pictures of the blood. The wages of sin
is death. Sin is not a little thing. Your
sins are crimson. colours that shine out. Whenever
you cut yourself, as I do these days and it bleeds profusely,
there's always a sense of shock when you see blood. For me there
is anyway. Maybe you're better than me. When I give blood I
can't even stand doing and looking at any of it. But there is a
sense in which the children of God are made to be sinners. We'll
see that, Lord willing, in the next weeks as we look at Isaiah
6. Because he says, Woe unto me,
because I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people
of unclean lips. Sinners come to know that they're
sinners because of the presence of God. Though your sins be as
scarlet. See, the Lord's not diminishing
the seriousness and the depth and the evil of sin. Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be wall. And what a remarkable condescension
of Agon. What a remarkable grace gift
it is, isn't it? He says, come now, let us reason
together. See, he'll reason together with
people who see their sins as scarlet. They'll see their sins
red like crimson. Now here comes to those people,
don't they? The people that the Lord spoke
to on that day at Pentecost were cut to the heart. They saw that
the sins was not just a superficial activity on the surface. It was
actually a wound. They needed a wound in their
heart because the heart was the source of it. So they're sinners. They're a small remnant. They
are sinners. Let's go down to to verse 25
and we'll see that they're redeemed sinners. And he says, And I will turn
my hand upon thee, and purge away thy dross, and take away
all thy tin. And I will restore thy judges
as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning. Afterwards
thou shalt be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful
City. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment. You have to look no further than
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ to see the judgment of God that
fell upon Him, when all of the sins of God's elect people were
put on Him, and God, in holiness and justice and judgment, crushed
His Son. And then we say those words,
don't we? We say words like, crushed His Son, and we have
no idea. We have no idea what we're talking about. Zion shall
be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness. All the us are sinners. All the
us are a remnant of sinners. They are redeemed sinners. They
are gathered sinners in Zion. They are sinners in the words
of verse 5. of chapter 2, O house of Jacob, come ye, let us walk
in the light of the Lord. The people that hide themselves,
if you go down to verse 10 of chapter 2, enter into the rock
and hide thee in the dust for the fear of the Lord and for
the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled. And the haughtiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. The Lord alone shall be exalted. Which is why over in chapter
3 verse 10 the us are called righteous. Say ye to the righteous
it shall be well with him. I love the italics in our King
James Version of the Bible. Say ye to the righteous, well. Well. Is it well with you? Is
it well with your soul? If you're a sinner, a redeemed
sinner, a hiding sinner in a rock, it is well. Chapter 4. Verse 2, it says,
In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and
glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and
comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come
to pass that he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth
in Jerusalem shall be called holy. God calls his people holy. This remnant of sinners, he calls
them holy, shall be called holy. Even everyone that is written
among the living in Jerusalem. We read chapter 5 earlier about
the vineyard that the Lord has. He has a vineyard. I love the
pictures in Song of Solomon, that vineyard. He has a garden
enclosed, a garden shut up. Chapter 6, of course, is the
passage that Paul referred to and is the most oft-quoted passage
in all of the New Testament. I want us to try and not only
see the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah and on, but
I want us to see something of the context of Isaiah as we might
Lord willing spend some time in it. But he's high and lifted
up. Have you ever seen the King? If you ever see the King, you'll
see him in verse 6, verse 1, you'll see him high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple, and there's no question
of John chapter 12 says this is speaking plainly of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have seen the Lord
Jesus Christ will cry out like Isaiah, verse 5, woe is me. They'll hear the seraphim call,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of his glory. God comes in our text in Isaiah
chapter 9, for unto us a child is born, and it's the result
of a promise, isn't it? One of the famous promises is
in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14, and it says, Therefore the Lord
himself shall give you a sign. This is a sign the Lord himself
gave. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and you shall call his name, so the Lord shall
call his name Immanuel. Immanuel, God with us. God with
us. We are encouraged and warned
in chapter 8 to sanctify, to set apart the Lord God. We are warned in chapter 8 about
those who speak ill of him when they claim to speak on his behalf. It says in verse 20, to the law
and the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, It doesn't say that there's a
little bit of light in them when they tell lies about God, and
deny His deity, and deny His sovereignty, and deny His efficacious
work on the Cross of Calvary, and make Him to be someone who
just makes an offer and tries. He says there is no light in
them. He doesn't say there's a little bit of light and we
can improve that light by education and all sorts of other things.
There is no light in them. There is no light in them. So
let's go to our text and we'll be obviously brief as we look
through this glorious description. For unto us. because of all these
things that have gone before, because of this great light that
shone in the darkness, the people, verse 2, it says, the people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They've seen
a great light. Those that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. You see, what was the darkness
that Paul walked in when he was on his way down to Damascus and
he saw a great light? What was the darkness that he
was walking in? People will say, well, it's the
darkness of immorality. But it wasn't the darkness. And
that wasn't the darkness of the people that the Lord Jesus came
to. The religious people, the Jews of that day, were moral.
They were doctrinally sound in so many remarkable ways. If they
came back today, we would be embarrassed about our ignorance
of the Scriptures and ignorance of history. They were moral people. They were doctrinally sound in
so many ways. But Paul was standing before
these people in Rome attesting to the fact that when he was
in their shoes, standing where they stood in their religious
righteousness, he was as blind as a bat and he didn't have a
clue who God was and he didn't have a clue who he was. The people
walking in darkness had seen a great light. For unto us, these people that
walked in darkness, a child is born. The incarnation of the
Lord Jesus Christ is just such a glorious, glorious truth, isn't
he? All of our humanity wrapped up
in a baby. He was made like us. we must affirm the perfect real
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was promised. It was promised
in Genesis 3 and it was promised throughout the Scriptures and
it's promised with greater clarity as the Scriptures unfold. And
Isaiah speaks so gloriously of Him. He says in chapter 11 verse
1, there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and
a branch shall grow out of his roots. He'll come, he'll come
as the son of David. He'll come as David's son and
David's Lord. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
was a son before he came. He's always been the Son of God.
And being a son doesn't diminish his deity in any way, shape or
form. He is God the Son. He declares
himself to be God. He was a son before he came.
He is the everlasting eternal son. He is one with God. He is
the companion, the fellow of God. I love the grace word that
comes, isn't it? A son is given. A son is given
to those who have walked in darkness, to those who saw themselves as
sinners, to those who needed redemption. A son is given. It's a glorious thing, isn't
it, for sinners to know that salvation is all of grace. 100%
of grace. 100% of God's eternal grace, of his
sovereign grace, of his electing grace, of his saving grace. Unto us a son is given. He's given. He's not given. Jehovah is my strength and my
soul. He also is become My salvation, therefore with
joy shall you draw waters out of the wells of salvation. The wells of salvation, that
overflowing fountain. The wells of salvation. He goes
on to say in verse 6, "...cry and shout, thou inhabitant of
Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."
You might recall that when Solomon dedicated the temple he was asked
that question, will God really dwell with man on earth? The
answer to Solomon's question he does now. A psalm is given. The government shall be upon
his shoulders. The government of what? The government
of absolutely everything. Why are you sitting here today
in this little old hall in Nowra, a remnant? Why are you sitting
here? Why are you hearing the words
from Isaiah that we are reading together here? See, God is the
first cause and the only cause of absolutely everything. When
did he determine this service and all the activities of this
service? When did he determine that? Before the foundation of
the world. The government's upon his shoulders.
And if the government of absolutely everything is not upon his shoulders,
then we're in very, very serious trouble. The government is upon
his shoulders. He's absolutely sovereign over
everything. The world in so many ways has
had its foundations sort of rocked in this last 12 months. It may
get even more rocky in the next little while, but who's the one
that shakes everything? God shakes it all. He can shake
it. The government's upon his shoulders. The key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder? So not only the government of
all the universe is upon his shoulder, but the government
of all the salvation of all his people is upon his shoulder.
The King of the House of David, that's the Church of the Living
God, I will lay upon his shoulder. He shall open. When he opens, no one shall shut. And he shall shut, and no one
open. Everything's upon his shoulder.
One of my favorite verses in Isaiah is in chapter 40 verse
11. And it says, it says in verse
11, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the
lambs with his arm. You lamb, helpless, needy. He'll gather the lambs with his
arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those with
young. You might recall the Lord Jesus
Christ said over and over again, All that the Father gives me
will come to me, and no one that comes to me will He ever cast
out. Nothing can remove you, child of God, from the arms of
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can pluck you out of His
hand. His name shall be called. Isaiah not only was speaking
to the people in his day, but he was speaking into the future,
isn't it? His name shall be called. Wonderful. Full of wonder. That's what he
is. Full of wonder. I love the fact
that our God is so infinite in all of the glory of his characteristics
that we just have to say he's wonderful. He's full of wonder.
He's full of wonder. Is he wonderful? Is he wonderful
to you? Full of wonder means miraculous,
marvelous, distinguished. is wondrous in all the things
that he does. He only does wondrous things.
That's all he does. Isaiah 28 says, In that day shall
the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
under the residue of the people. He will. He will be this wonderful
one, that tribe foundation, that precious foundation, that sure
foundation, We won't be running around wondering
what's happening. We will be at rest in who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. He's wonderful as a Saviour.
He's wonderful as a King. He's wonderful as our Advocate
before the Father. There He is right now pleading
our cause. There He is right now praying
for us. He's wonderful in His presence with us. He's wonderful
as a High Priest. He's wonderful as Lord of all. He's wonderful. as a man, what
a remarkable man the Lord Jesus Christ is. Don't you read the
gospel accounts of him dealing with people and find him wonderful? Don't you find him wonderful?
Wonderful in grace, wonderful in mercy, wonderful in truth,
wonderful in honesty with the people he dealt with, wasn't
he? Wonderful in his humility, He
was so humbled that man could treat him as next to nothing.
He humbled himself and became obedient even to the obedience
of death and the cross. He was wonderful. He was wonderful
in his obedience to the law of God. He was wonderful in his He's wonderful as our Lord. He's
wonderful in the thought, isn't it? It's wonderful to think of
what he's doing right now. He's still doing exactly the
same as he did in Isaiah's day, isn't he? He still has a remnant
people. He's still gathering his remnant
people. He's still gathering. To him shall be the gathering
the people be. He'll be the one that gathers
them. this world is wonderful in his
intercession is wonderful in his reign over all things is
wonderful in his return what an extraordinary wonder it was
in that day of his resurrection when all of those people who
had been expecting nothing and had lost all hope found that
light shone into extraordinary darkness that day is wonderful
in his judgment is wonderful in redemption is wonderful in
his shed blood. What wonder, full of wonder,
our hearts ought to be as we gaze upon him on Calvary's tree. He's wonderful. He's the counsellor. He's one who gives counsel. He's
one who gives counsel. He's wise in all that he does,
isn't he? It says in Isaiah, verse 11,
we read verse one a minute ago, but in verse two it says, and
the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and shall make
him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. He's wonderful. His counsel is his decrees. His counsel is his intercession
for his people. It can mean a legal representative,
the one who gives counsel and direction. Our God says in Isaiah
46.10, my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. The Lord Jesus Christ died under
the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God. He's immutable
in his counsel. There is, Zechariah says, a counsel
of peace between them in that great surety engagement that
they entered into before the foundation of the world. He's
wise in counsel. Isaiah 28, 29 says, the Lord
of hosts, wonderful in counsel, excellent in working. So he not
just has direction, but he's able to bring that direction
to pass. He's too wise to err. He's too good to do wrong. He's
too strong to fail, which is why he's called the mighty God,
God the strong one. It's one of the clearest things
in all of the New Testament, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ
was God. The Lord Jesus Christ claimed
to be God. The Old Testament scriptures
declared him to be God. He's God. That's why my servants
shall not fail nor be discouraged. He's a mighty God. He leads his
people on a path to Zion. He's wise. He's mighty. He's able to do all that he wishes
to have come to pass. He's called the Everlasting Father. This might seem confusing to
people, isn't it? That he's God and Father. He's
Saviour and Father. He's the Father of an everlasting
age. He's a father who gives life
to his children by his worthy spirit. He's the father of eternity.
He was brought forth from eternity. He brought forth all eternity. He sits outside of time and space. And for the Lord Jesus Christ
and for our God, all of this time existence is one undivisible
present. He doesn't learn anything. He
doesn't learn anything. Nothing new, nothing surprises
our God. He's everlasting. He has no beginning
and no end. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. Hebrews 1 speaks of that regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's like Melchizedek, isn't
he? He's a priest forever. an endless life, to give, to
rule, to see that his council shall stand. He's an everlasting
father to give life to all of his children. He's the everlasting
father of this everlasting gospel age. He'll never die, and he'll
never become childless. He gives everlasting life. He gives an everlasting inheritance. He's the Prince of Peace. Isaiah
35, 47. Our God. Our God creates us and
he forms us and he redeems us and he calls us and then he says,
you're mine. You're mine. Do you have peace? Do you have peace about this
world? Do you have peace about your
soul? Can you think as you ought about
the day of your departure? in times of dying, but we have
peace with God. All that God ever requires of
me, He has in His Son, and He's had it from all eternity. Thou art mine, he says, Isaiah
43, 1-5. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. He doesn't
say if you pass through the waters, he says when you pass through
the waters, I'll be with you. When you pass through the rivers,
they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire,
thou shalt not be burned, neither shall a flame kill that upon
you. Why? For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, the Saviour. And we'll finish with Isaiah
chapter 9 verse 7. And the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of his father, the throne of David,
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. He'll bring light into darkness.
And in his light, sinners will see what they are, and sinners
will call out for a Redeemer. And they'll find in the Lord
Jesus Christ, when they're made sinners by him, that we have
this glorious, glorious Savior. Isn't he wonderful? He's wonderful to the us. God,
make yourself wonderful to me. Is he my counsel, or am I looking
to him for counsel? Have I turned away from all the
counsel of this world? Lord, turn us. Lord, cause us
to hear your voice. Lord, cause us to just rest and
trust in who you are and what you say. He is the mighty God. our earthly fathers, and we earthly
fathers let our children down appallingly in so many ways. This is a good father. This is
a good and great and glorious father. He's the Prince of Peace. May he be wonderful to you. Let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the revelation of yourself in your dear and precious Son.
And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you might come yet again
and into the darkness of our Adam flesh and the darkness of
the many things that befall us in this world, Heavenly Father,
that you'd shine a great light. A great light that reveals the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world. May we find
ourselves led by you just to walk in the light that you have
given us, our Father. And may that cause us to find
ourselves at rest and at peace in He who is the Prince of Peace,
our mighty God. Make his counsel our counsel. Cause him to be wonderful to
us. Cause us to see that our mighty
God was crucified for us. Heavenly Father, may your blessed
spirit come and reveal to us the glorious things of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And may we find ourselves hiding
in he who is the rock in this extraordinarily unstable world. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people, Heavenly Father. Make your son precious, his blood
special and precious to us. We pray in his name, in his glory,
heavenly Father. Amen.