What does the birth of Christ
mean to you? What does the birth of Christ
declare to you? It declares with unmistakable
clarity three great truths. One, the birth of Christ declares
to you and me our desperate need of a Savior. Two, the birth of Christ declares
to you and I that we're totally, completely unable to save ourselves. It tells us that because nothing
less than the Son of God coming in human flesh and offering Himself
as a sacrifice for sin could save His people. And then thirdly, the birth of
Christ declares that God, as both God and man,
has perfectly, completely, fully accomplished the eternal redemption
of his people. We've been going through the
book of Isaiah and we find ourselves this week right in the middle
of those two familiar passages which multitudes are hearing
preached this time of the year. Isaiah 7 verse 14, therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Butter
and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse to evil and
choose the good. Then Isaiah 9 and 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. 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 forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. Our text this morning is in Isaiah
chapter 8 verse 18. This is the Lord of hosts, the
Lord Jesus Christ speaking. I and the children whom the Lord
hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the
Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion." These are the
words of the Lord of hosts by which He sanctifies Himself in
the hearts of His people. He spoke to Isaiah with a strong
hand instructing him in verse 12. And the Lord said, Say ye
not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say,
a confederacy? Neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let him be your fear, let him
be your dread, and he shall be for sanctuary. Then in verse
16 he says, Bind up the testimony. Seal the law among my disciples. And then in verses 17 and 18,
the Lord of Hosts testifies of His Word of Grace. By doing so,
He sanctifies Himself in the hearts of His children. He binds
up and He seals His testimony among us through the Holy Spirit,
and thus He separates His children into Christ, our sanctuary. The testimony of the Lord of
Hosts must be a powerful Word of Grace to do all that. Indeed
it is. Would you be interested in hearing
His Word for yourself? Would you be interested in hearing
the testimony, the witness of the Lord of hosts Himself? Would
it soothe your troubled soul to know why the Lord Himself
shall forever be the sanctuary of all who trust Him? Well, here
it is in Isaiah 8, verse 17. And I will wait upon the Lord
that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look
for him. The Lord of heaven and earth
requires absolute perfect obedience and implicit trust in him from
all his children. He requires that his sinless
servants look to him with unwavering confidence like a little child
has toward their father. And yet that's something that
not one of his adopted sons or daughters has the power to perform. Throughout the book of Isaiah,
in fact throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel are set
before God's true Israel. before his children as a mirror
so that every individual child of God may behold what he is,
what she is by nature. In simple language, the Lord
declares why his son had to come in human flesh. Look back at
Isaiah 1 verse 2 with me. This was Isaiah's gospel and
this is what he preached all the way through this book up
until the chapter we're in now. This is the Lord declaring why
His Son had to come in human flesh. Verse 2, Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished
and brought up children and they have rebelled against me." This
is why Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me. Condemned because
of our transgression against God, we lived in sin, alienated
from God, not knowing God, and unable to know Him. Many of us
gladly receive the scriptures, but we use the word of the Lord
unlawfully, attempting to come to Him by the strength of our
own hand. Time and time again, we'd read
a verse like Isaiah 111. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? We would read a passage
such as Isaiah 1, verses 16 through 20. Wash you, make you clean. Put
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease
to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge
the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now,
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you
refuse and rebel, you should be devoured with the sword, for
the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." And we'd hear that, and
we would reform our lives and conduct ourselves in what we
truly thought was obedience in all our dealings with the oppressed
and the fatherless and the widow. And yet we were unable to acknowledge
the depth of the scarlet crimson stain of our sin. We were unable
to understand, much less believe, the absolute inability for anyone
to make us accepted of God but God himself. We never considered
that the evil which the Lord instructed us to put away was
the evil of looking to our own will and our own obedience. Thus
we continued eating the husk of swine rather than the good
of the land, which is Christ Jesus the bread of life. That's
why in Bethlehem unto us a child was born and unto us a son was
given. We imagined ourselves the faithful
city while in truth we played the harlot against God. Murder
lodged in our hearts and our spiritual death, the riches of
Christ were drossed to us. We mingled the pure wine of God's
grace with the filthy, polluted water of our own works. And in
our personal lives and in our daily dealings with men, we pleased
ourselves with those who were strangers to God. We yoked ourselves
with unbelievers. And our affection was set on
the treasures of this world. And by all appearance, we appeared
as if we were prospering pretty well. We really did. Yet our foolishness of thinking
ourselves safe and secure in those things was as foolish as
if you tried to harness up a horse to a wagon and save yourself
from God's wrath by the strength of that horse and that wagon. God's wrath It was against us,
our idols, the works of our hands and the treasures of our heart
is all that our heart was set on. And that's why the government
of the universe, the government of the earth and the government
of the church of God was laid on the shoulder of that one who
was laid in a manger. In our haughtiness, we boasted
our will and exalted the power of man to a lofty position. Thinking we heard the Lord, we
couldn't hear Him. Thinking we saw the Lord, we
couldn't see Him. And the Lord repeatedly sent
His messenger saying to us what He said in Isaiah 2.22, Seize
ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is
he to be accounted of. And we said, Amen. That's the
gospel. That's the doctrine of total
depravity. I know that doctrine. And with our lips we confessed
him, but in our hearts we counted ourselves true and God a liar. Our stay and our staff was our
own might. We were our own judge, our own
prophet. Self was the one we regarded
as the prudent, wise old man. We esteemed ourselves honorable,
and we considered our own counsel more valuable than any other.
That's why the wonderful counselor The advocate of his children
was formed in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. Isaiah 8,
17. because we would not believe
the Lord, because in our depravity we could not sanctify the Lord
of hosts Himself. Therefore, the Lord of hosts,
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
revealed Himself in us, declaring, I will wait upon the Lord that
hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for
Him. What does that mean? What does
that mean? It means that Christ Jesus was
born to do and did for his brethren what his brethren could never
do themselves. The children which the Lord gave
to the Son had to be brought into holiness. They had to be
made holy. They had to be delivered and
separated from guilt, from pollution, and from death. They had to be
brought into the presence of God by their high priest, eternally
perfected, so that God would be pleased to descend into their
souls and make them partakers of his divine nature. This most
amazing work would manifest the righteousness of God as just
and their justifier. This work would require the sin
bearer be a man. A perfect man with perfect faith. A perfect man whose faith was
so perfect that he would willingly be made sin for those he came
to save. A perfect man whose faith was
so perfect that even when God hid his face from him in eternal
fierce wrath, he would yet wait upon the Lord and look for him.
The righteousness of God was manifest in the faithfulness
of that perfect man. Look with me at Romans chapter
3 verse 21. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God is manifest
by the faithfulness of Christ Jesus with these most precious
words of grace. In verse 17 of our text, I will
wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob,
and I will look for him. That's what is required by God
to bring His children into His presence. That's the kind of
perfect obedience and perfect faith that is required of His
children for them to enter into His presence. And that's why
the Lord Jesus was born. This word of His grace is, Isaiah, though your heart becomes
like the wind, just like Ahazaz, who's tossed like the trees that
are blown with the wind. Though your heart becomes like
that, though you waver in yourself, though your faith is imperfect,
I will wait for the Lord of Hosts that turneth His back on Jacob,
and I will look for Him in perfection, and my perfection shall be your
perfection." Now we come to our text, and this is the Lord of
hosts bearing witness of why none of His children can be lost,
and of why He shall be a sanctuary for each of them. Verse 18, I and the children whom the Lord
hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the
Lord of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Sinai. I want to look
for a moment at this phrase, for signs and for wonders. The
Lord Jesus Christ, he says, behold I, behold me, he said. The Lord Jesus Christ is for
a sign and for wonders in Israel. The word sign means covenant. That's what it means. If you
look over there at Isaiah 7, 14, whenever Isaiah was preaching
to Ahaz, and he said, ask a sign, ask for a token of the covenant. It says there that Ahaz refused
to do so, and it says, therefore the Lord Himself shall give you
a sign. He will give you a token. He
will give you His word of promise. And here it is. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. That's why in Isaiah 9.6 we read,
for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Look over at Isaiah 42 with me.
Isaiah 42. Now hear what I say when I say
this. He indeed is the author of the covenant. He indeed is
the surety of the covenant. He indeed is the mediator of
the covenant. But He is the covenant. He is
the covenant. Now listen, read here, Isaiah
42, 6. I the Lord have... He's speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give
thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. Just as surely as He is the light,
He is the covenant. He is the covenant. The Lord
Jesus Christ said, no sign shall be given but me and what I'm
going to do. In Him, the covenant of God with
His children is ordered in all things and it's sure. Christ
is in the hearts of His people. The rainbow in the heart of Noah. Look at Isaiah 54.9. For this
is as the waters of Noah unto me. This is the Lord thy Redeemer
speaking. This is as the waters of Noah
unto me, for as I have sworn in covenant promise that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. And
now this word wonder. It has to do with Him being the
express image of God. This word wonder is the extraordinary
exhibition whereby God declares Himself. Look at Hebrews 1 verse
1. Hebrews 1 verse 1. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory. There's something
about this wonder. and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power. Here's
something about that wonder. When he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high,
being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. Paul said to the Colossians,
he's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all he might have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. His name is wonderful. His person is wonderful. He is God and man. Our High Priest,
our Savior is the Lord of Hosts while at the same time He's bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Can you think of anything
more wonderful than that? Can you think of anything? These
are the words whereby the Lord of Hosts, this is the sign and
the wonder from the Lord of Hosts from Zion to you to testify by
His Word of Grace in your heart Through the Spirit, this is why
He shall be for sanctuary to you. It's because of who He is. His reign is wonderful. Isaiah
9-7 says, of the increase of His government and peace, there
shall be no end. It never shall 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 forever. That gives us great reason to
say with Isaiah in Isaiah 12.6, Cry out and shout thou inhabitant
of Zion for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of
thee. And he's a sign to the believer. even when we behold
those who reject Him and label Him an imposter. This declares
Him to be exactly who He said He is. In Luke 2.34, Eric just
read it, I won't have you turn there, but when Simeon blessed
them and said unto Mary his mother, he said this, Behold, this child
is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and
for a sign which shall be spoken against In Isaiah 8.14 there, it says,
He shall be for a sanctuary for those who put their trust in
Him, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of a fence to
both the houses of Israel, and for a gin and for a snare to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You see, the sign and the wonderful
manifestation of God's glory is not at all what the natural
man perceives to be glorious. Not at all. For many, the thought
of a virgin conceiving a baby called that holy thing of the
Holy Ghost is too far-fetched. It's just too far-fetched. And
until that Holy Ghost forms that holy thing in the sinner, it'll
be too far-fetched. It'll continue to be too far-fetched.
The thought that the infant lying in a donkey trough in Bethlehem
is truly the mighty God, the everlasting Father, is irreconcilable
with man's image of the Messiah. When reading that this Jesus
was tempted in all points like his brethren, that he suffered
the feeling of our infirmities, that he believed God, that he
prayed to the Father, was strengthened by the Father, it makes him to
be so much a man. likened to the children that
he came to save, that many make that the basis of rejecting him. That's what the Israelites said
of him. This man, him being a man, makes
himself to be God. The reality is he's God who made
himself a man. Multitudes behold him on a criminal's
cross, spit upon, mocked by mere men, appearing as if men had
power over him, and thus they stumble in disbelief that this
could be the wisdom by which God forever perfected his people. For most, when they behold his
body placed in a tomb, it's too wondrous to believe that his
body is no longer there, but is risen and glorified in heaven. That a man sits upon the throne
of God in heaven. Now that's a sign and a wonder.
And that's a sign which is spoken against. But equally, if not
more offensive, is the truth that He came to do and did the
work that His people could not do for themselves. He honored
His law as their representative. He paid the wages of sin as their
substitute. He's raised from the grave and
His children are raised in Him. And truthfully, man by nature
does not think he needs God. He does not want to confess that
Christ is the power and wisdom of God. He wants to come to God
Himself in that glory. He wants the glory that belongs
to God alone. Therefore, for all these reasons,
Christ is a cumbersome stone which men stumble over. He is
a snare. He is a trap at the feet whereby
they are ensnared and without controversy. 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, and received up into glory. He's saying to Isaiah, he's saying,
Isaiah, this is the strong hand. This is the arm of the Lord.
by which he spoke to Isaiah. And the Lord said, and he instructed
me, and he told me, don't say a confederacy with these people.
How did he say that to him? By showing him every reason not
to make a confederacy with them. By showing him, I will wait on
the Lord that hides his face from Jacob. I'm your faithfulness.
I'm your perfect, righteous obedience before God. I'll pay your sin
debt, Isaiah. And he says, for behold, I'm
for a sign and for a wonder in Israel. I'm for a sign and for
a wonder in Israel. And the children that are given
me, they're for signs and for wonders in Israel. That means I have to accomplish
my work and they shall be saved, for if not, If one perishes in
unbelief, what kind of sign and what kind of wonder shall he
be? Now look here, the children given him are for signs and for
wonders. He said, Behold, I and the children
thou hast given me are for signs and for wonders. First of all,
the children are signs and wonders of God's great love to condescend
to make himself one with them. The children were set apart for
the Son of God when God chose them in His Son before time began.
Because the Son of God was the one to whom the children were
given, the Son of God willingly entered into covenant agreement
in eternity to be the Son given for them. Because the children were given
to the Son, the Son willingly agreed in covenant agreement
to be the Son given for them. for as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood. He also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
He is a son over His own house. These children that were given
to Him are His house. And He is the Son of God to whom
they are given. If He does not accomplish their
redemption, and if they are not fully redeemed and brought unblameable,
unreprovable into the very presence of God, perfectly conformed to
His image in final glory, then he's no longer the perfect
obedient son of God's righteousness. And this is no longer his house.
And God's Word is no longer true. And brethren, that can't be.
He's saying, this is how sure this thing is. and for a sign and a wonder who
will make myself one with these children that have been given
to me in the flesh that I might make them one with me in spirit
and together together when we shall be perfectly conformed
to the image of Christ we shall be one in him in spirit and in
glorified flesh God breaking the barrier between
spirit and flesh that He might bring us through the barrier
of spirit and flesh into His presence as both spirit and flesh. That's amazing. That's a sign
and a wonder. They were sanctified by him first,
by the work which he performed for them, and secondly, by him
sending forth the Spirit and word of grace into their hearts.
Therefore, here is an amazing sign and wonder concerning these
children. He, God, the Lord of hosts, is
not ashamed to call them brethren. Because He that sanctifieth and
they that are sanctified are all of one. That's not speaking,
Eric, of Him bringing us to Him, as much as it's speaking of the
glory of Him making Himself one with us and coming to where we
are. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee." You know when he said that? In Psalm 22 he said
that after, after he endured the agony of the cross. He said,
I'll declare thy name. There's a great name to declare.
The righteousness of God is manifest in him. I'll declare thy name
unto my brethren. I'll sing praises unto thee in
the midst of the church, in the midst of the congregation. What
do we see in Acts 14? They went into the synagogue,
both of them together, Paul and Barabbas and Christ Jesus the
Lord. And Paul and Barnabas stood up
and preached, and to the eyes of all them there, all stood
before them was just two men, and they stood there and preached
the gospel. And it says, Christ testifying of the word of His
grace, granting signs and wonders to be done through their hands.
That's what happens here when he sends forth Isaiah to declare
this message. And again, he says, I'll put
my trust in Him. That's from Isaiah 8, 17. And
he says, Behold, I am the children whom God hath given me. That's
from verse 18 right here. Because in all things it behooved
Him to be made like unto His brethren. that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of his people, and that
he's a man in all points tempted like as we are, he's able therefore
as a faithful and merciful high priest to comfort us in every
hour of need, in every trial, and that trial of unbelief where
we're wavering he comes to us through one of his Isaiah like
he did here and he says Sanctify the Lord of hosts and then he
Commences to sanctify himself in our hearts through that word
And secondly the children are signs and wonders of his sovereign
power to bring them to rest in him alone Listen now The sign
and wonder of grace is in that we who were once dead in trespasses
and in sins, who hated God with all we are, now entrust our eternal
well-being into his hands and believe him. Let me show you how he does this.
The law of God says, thou shalt and thou shalt not. Repeatedly
the Lord God says speaking to all the congregation of the children
of Israel and saying to them ye shall be holy for I the Lord
your God am holy and Before the Holy Spirit formed Christ in
us. We thought the law we thought that word was Reckon a recommendation We were
like King Uzziah, with our hearts lifted up within us, thinking
we could actually be God. We tried our hardest to bypass
God's high priest and bring ourselves to him by our own working his
law, ourselves, just as King Uzziah did. We were alive without
the law as we did our dead-level best to keep it. But when the
commandment came from the Lord of hosts in Zion, sin revived. And in that year, that season
of His love, us King Uzziahs died. We died. That's what Isaiah meant
when he said, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. In the year that God made me
behold that I'm not the king, that I'm not the high priest,
that I can't walk into the holiest of holies by myself, of my own
accord, by my own strength. He made me to see that I can't
do that when He took away all my idols from me, all my fancies,
all my foolish, vain imagination, all my exalting of myself to
a lofty height where I didn't belong. And in that season of
His love, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, He said. And when
we saw that, we cried out in woe. We cried out, woe is me,
I'm undone. But the angel of the Lord flew
with a live coal, the live coal of the word of His grace from
Christ our altar as He testified in our hearts and He placed it
on our tongue. He put His word in our mouths.
He made His covenant with us in our hearts. In other words,
this one who is given for a covenant, entered in. He entered into us. Christ was formed in us. The
light, the life, the truth, sanctification, holiness, righteousness, every
bit of it entered into us. And in partaking of His divine
nature, we became alive. We had light. We had wisdom. We were sanctified. We became
holy and righteous before God Almighty in the Spirit and in
truth. And we cried out, but He said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin is purged. And in that hour, in that hour,
and from then on, Our faithful Redeemer revealed that the Lord
Himself, Christ Jesus our Savior, honored and magnified His own
law for us. He established it in perfect
faithfulness before His holy throne. And for the first time,
for the first time, we ceased hearing His law as a recommendation
and we began hearing it as a declaration. Thou shalt became thou hast because
I have. Thou shalt not, became thou hast
not, because I have not. Thou shalt be holy, became thou
art holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. But what about our guilt, our
former sins, and the sins we'll yet commit? And the Lord testified
of His word of grace in our hearts, saying, I, even I am He that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. He said, I blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions, as a cloud thy sins. Return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee. He said, and now while tariest
thou, arise and be baptized and confess what I've done, calling
on my name. That's the very thing Isaiah
declared. That's what Isaiah was sent declaring. That's what
Isaiah came preaching. He came preaching that the Lord
said, The Lord said, as your representative
and as your substitute, I waited on my God as He poured out His
eternal wrath on me and I purged your sin and I am the perfection
of holiness that you must have to enter into glory. Sanctify
me and I shall be for a sanctuary. That's what He said through this
Word. And here's a wonder. You're going
to want to see this. Psalm 71. Psalm 71. And this
is the amazing sign and wonder of all signs and wonders. We
believed Him. We believed Him. And we continue
to believe in Him. We who once boasted only in ourselves,
now boast only in our Lord and Savior. Listen to the psalmist. Psalm 71. I am as a wonder unto
many. But thou art my strong refuge.
You see that? I'm a wonder to many. They don't
understand. They don't understand it when
I tell them. I've satisfied the law in my lawgiver, in my representative,
in my substitute. I see Him as He is. I behold Him as He is by His
power and grace. And I'm resting in Him and He's
for sanctuary for me. He's for sanctification for me.
He's holiness for me. He's righteousness for me. And
they wonder at it and say, I don't understand that. And yet, the
psalmist said, what I'm saying is, you're my refuge. I'm not
saying I've done anything. People sit and wonder, but I'm
saying thou art my strong refuge. If it were possible for one of
those children which were given to him to perish before being
brought to faith in him, he'd cease being any kind of sign
and wonder at all. And so would they. So would they. He didn't come here. He was not
born. condescended to join himself
with our flesh so that by chance, after he got
through giving himself, somebody would believe on him. In fact,
he didn't join himself with the humanity of everybody. He joined himself with the humanity
of the seed of Abraham, the true sons and true daughters of Abraham.
That's who he's joined himself with. That's who he's one with,
and that's who he's not ashamed to call his brethren. Well, something else here. These children are signs and
wonders of His grace as they are rejected by this world. I hear folks trying their best,
trying their dead-level best in religion to do things that
will make Young people, behold how cool it is to be a Christian.
I was in my hometown and I drove by the First Baptist Church in
my hometown and I was amazed. There was a nightclub across
the street from the First Baptist Church in my hometown. I could
not believe it. I know the people that worship
there. I know that something incredible had to happen for
them to allow A nightclub to go in with bent neon and dark
windows and all that to go in across the street from the church?
They put it in. They put it in. It's a children's
club to teach them how cool it is to be a Christian. Religion
thinks that the believer, because he's called the light of the
world, will somehow shine forth before this world in such a way
that the world will be captivated and drawn to you like a moth
to a flame. This is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved." We rejected Christ the light. Do you think that this world
is going to receive you in whom his light shines. When he says
that we as believers are the light of the world, the meaning
is the only light that's in this world at all is in those in whom
Christ lives. Everybody else and everything
else is utter darkness. Utter darkness. And you can't,
by something you do, make this world be drawn to you and accept
you and say, I want to be like you. Only God can do that. Only God can do that. He said,
I've manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. I've given them thy word,
and the world hated them. Because they're not of the world,
even as I'm not of the world. Now, look over at 1 Corinthians
4.9 and I'll close. I want to show you this one reason
here. That's not the kind of sign and
wonder the apostles and disciples were before the eyes of the world.
Listen to the Apostle Paul's description. 1 Corinthians 4.9. He said, For I think that God
hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to
death, for we are made a spectacle unto the world. and to angels
and to men. In verse 10 he says, we're despised. But here's why the Lord has left
us in a world that hates us. Here's the sign and wonder of
His grace in His purpose in leaving us in a world that hates us.
Look at verse 11. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and
thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain
dwelling place, and labor working with our own hands, being reviled
by this world. We bless. You see that? Being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer it. Being defamed, we entreat. We're made as a filth of the
world and the offscarring of all things into this world. But
the way the world treated Christ is the way the world treated
them. But He chose it to be so that we might continually learn
to cast our care upon Him. And that's why He continues to
send forth an Isaiah with His Word of Grace. That's why the
Lord from Mount Zion continually testifies in our hearts, continues
to cry into our souls, ever reminding us that He stands before us and
before God with one cry. And that cry is this, I waited
on him that hid his face from me, therefore behold me as I
am, so are you. And he says, as our faithful
and merciful high priest before God Almighty, he says, behold
I and the children whom thou hast given me. I turn not my
face from thee when you turn your face from me in righteous
judgment. And I have redeemed them, and
as I am, so are they. He has but one cry in your heart
and as our advocate before God the Father. And He'd have us
bind up this testimony and seal it among His disciples until
He has sealed every last one in the heart by His Holy Spirit.
Here's what I'm trying to tell you. It's what He's saying. He is the sign and wonder from
the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion. That's an odd
way to say it. You mean the Lord of Hosts who
spoke to Isaiah with a strong hand says, I am a sign and wonder
from the Lord of Hosts which dwells in Mount Zion? Remember
David prayed and said, My Lord said to Thee, Lord. Remember
that? The Lord says, I am a sign and
wonder unto you from the Lord that dwells in Zion. That means
as the Lord of Hosts, as man, He dwells right now victoriously
in Mount Zion, in Heaven's glory, in His church, in the hearts
of His people. And He reigns and He rules. And
don't try to wrap your mind around this. It ain't big enough. But let me tell you this. He
is His own covenant with Himself. And in the hearts of His children. And He is His own word of promise
of grace with Himself and with His children. He is... Give me a doctrinal dissertation
on this one. He is the fullness which filleth
all in all. I believe Him. Can I explain
that? There ain't no way. There ain't
no way. I wouldn't even try to. And thank
God I don't have to. He don't tell me to figure me
out. He just says rest in me. And
I can do that. I can rest. I can rest. Now you
look one more time at Isaiah 7.14. Therefore the Lord Himself
shall give you a sign. Here's the sign. The Lord Himself. That's what He said. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name
Immanuel. God with us. Jesus. For He shall
save His people from their sin. The mighty God. the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. You want a sign? I am it. I am is the sign, he said. That's
why a child was born unto us and unto us a son was given. So now, if somebody asks you
what Christmas means to you, you can say, well, it doesn't
mean anything to me. But if they ask you, what does
the birth of Christ mean to you? You can say, if you know Him,
trust Him. If He is indeed your sanctuary,
you can say, it means to me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all, and sure, and this is all my salvation and all my desire. That's what it means to me. That's
what the birth of my Savior means to me. Well, I pray the Lord
will sanctify Himself in your hearts and He'll cause you to
sanctify Him. And I guarantee you if He does,
He'll be for a sign of assurance and you'll rest in Him in wondrous
amazement at Him.