May God be with us and bless
us this morning as we turn to his word together. And we'll
turn to the chapter we read in the Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
9, and we'll read verse 6. The Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
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. Well I'm sure all of us and particularly
the children here this morning are looking forward to Thursday
and we're all looking forward to probably receiving some presents,
receiving some gifts. Perhaps we have some ideas of
what we hope to get, of what we hope some people may have
bought for us. Perhaps many of them will be
surprises. and we'll be hopefully very pleased with what we receive
and what we unwrap. But I want you to imagine if
one year you receive a gift, you find a present which has
come from someone, a long lost relative perhaps, who you really
don't know, perhaps someone who you've not met before and yet
they have given you a present and it's wonderful to find out
that this person has given you, has been kind enough to give
you a present to open. And then imagine if when you
unwrapped the present, it was exactly what you wanted. It was the best thing anyone
could ever have given you. It was just what you wanted. It was the best present out of
all of them, but it had come from someone who you didn't really
know. Well, two things would probably
amaze you. Two things would strike you with
wonder. Firstly, that they had given
you a present at all. that they had bothered to think
about you, that they had bothered to go and buy something and send
it for you. That was amazing in itself, that
this person had sent you a present. The second most wonderful thing
is that they had given you that present, the thing you wanted,
the gift you had particularly desired. So two things really
would strike you with wonder, would make you so pleased. Firstly,
you've received the present. Secondly, of what the present
was. Well, what we've read here in
this text, in Isaiah 9 verse 6, is of a gift. A gift that has been given. A gift given by God to his people. And this text should strike us
with those same two elements of wonder. Firstly, that there
is a gift at all, that God has given his son, that he has given
such blessing to his people. But then the text goes on to
describe the gift. and gives these different descriptions
and words to describe who he is. Wonderful, counsellor, the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Here we
have described the wonderful gift, the Son of God. And again,
that should also strike us with amazement and wonder. And today,
I want to consider this verse in those two aspects. Firstly
this morning, the gift or the giving of the gift, the wonderful
fact that God has given his son, and then, God willing, this evening
we will turn to consider the gift himself. Well, clearly we
can see who the gift is, can't we? It's clear that this text,
though spoken hundreds of years before Christ was born, speaks
of Jesus, It is prophecy, one of the clearest prophecies of
the coming of Christ, that a child will be born and at this time
of year we think about the child in Bethlehem. How Jesus was born
in Bethlehem in that stable, how he was laid in the manger
and how the shepherds and so forth came to see him. That is
what we think about this time of year, a child being born. It is that child that is being
referred to here, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has come as a saviour. He has come to do a wonderful
work. He has come sent by God to this
world for a specific and a wonderful purpose. He has come to save
his people from their sins. And yes, he was born in Bethlehem,
but he must go on to grow and to live a life for 33 years in
this world. He must go on ultimately to the
cross. He must go to suffer. He must
go to the grave. He must be raised again. This
is why Christ must come. This was why the Lord sent him. This is why he willingly came
It was to go to Calvary, to go to the cross. So the child is
born and though prophesied many years before, we know that the
child had come. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Well, this morning then, let
us consider the giving of the gift. the giving of a gift. Firstly, who is this gift given
to? Who is it given to? Well, it's
clear, isn't it? Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. Who is that referring to? Now,
of course, we could say in the immediate sense the son was given
to Mary. Mary was Jesus' mother and she
was given particularly this gift, this son. Now who was Mary? Well we know that Mary was a
humble girl really, she wasn't old, probably in her mid-teens. She was in Nazareth. She was
highly favoured, greatly blessed But she was not particularly
special, as it were, in the eyes of men. She was an ordinary girl
living in Nazareth. And that was, of course, not
a well thought of town. It was a despised town. The people
thought nothing good could ever come from a place of Nazareth.
And yet there was Mary, poor and not great, not powerful,
not important in the world's eyes. And yet God came to Mary. The angel spoke directly to her
and declared to her that she was greatly favoured, greatly
blessed by God. He had, by his grace, chosen
her to be the mother of the Christ, the mother of the Messiah. And
of course this was a great blessing, a great honour. How the angel
came to her, The angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou
that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed art
thou among women. And this girl was called by God,
was chosen by God to be highly favoured. How wonderful it must
have been for her when we consider who she was and her low position
in society. An ordinary girl and yet the
Lord came to her and uttered such wonderful words. She was
highly favoured. Oh, what a blessing for Mary. What a great honour. You see,
it's wonderful how the Lord worked and how he orders all of these
things in choosing Mary. We have Mary's history or her
ancestry detailed for us in the Gospel of Luke. In chapter 3
in the Gospel of Luke we are told the ancestors of Mary and
how the Lord came through this wonderful line and ultimately
was born of Mary. We're told of the different individuals
and the important characters through that line. As we look
through it in Luke 3, we can pick out important names. We
can see that he was the son of David. Mary came from David's
line. Now we know that God promised
David that the descendants of his that the Christ would come,
the Saviour would come, who would sit on the throne of David. How important it was that Christ
came through that line of David. As we work our way through, we
can see she comes through the line of Judah. Judah from the
tribes of Israel. The line of Judah that would
come. Of course, he comes from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who
were all promised that through their seed, all the nations would
be blessed. And then it's traced through
and ends with these wonderful words, the son of Adam, the son
of God. So Luke traces all the way back
to creation, the history of Christ. Through all of these individuals,
David, Abraham and so forth and many others, ultimately to Adam
and to Christ. Why does Luke do that? Why does
Luke tell us this information? What's important about this genealogy? Well, he's showing to us that
Christ comes through the promises, he fulfills the promises to David,
he fulfills the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But he also
shows that Christ is not only the child of Abraham, he is not
only the saviour of Israel, he's not only the Christ for the descendants
of Abraham, he traces it back to Adam to show that through
Mary he is the saviour of the world. He has come the Messiah,
the Christ for all nations, all descendants of Adam. You see how important our genealogy
is. Perhaps we scan over that. We don't read it. We think, why
is it in the Bible? Well, it's important to show
us that Christ has come and has fulfilled the Lord's promises. This is the genealogy of Mary.
We read the genealogy of Joseph, of course his legal father, as
the world was concerned, in Matthew's Gospel. So we see a child of
Mary. the significance there, that
the Lord came to this girl. So, this son was given to her
and there's blessing, there's encouragement in those thoughts.
He says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. It's a wider scope than just
Mary. The child is born for us. for sinners, for fallen mankind, for the utterly
unworthy, for those who have turned from the Lord, those who
have sinned against Him, those who have fallen, those who have
broken His commands, those who are born in Adam as sinners unto
us, a child is born. It is unto those that Isaiah
describes, the people that walk in darkness and they that dwell
in the land of the shadow of death. And that describes mankind
by nature. They're walking in darkness and
dwell in the land of the shadow of death. They are dead in their
sins. They do not know and recognise
the Lord. They do not desire or seek the
Lord. They are in darkness. And the Lord there says this
wonderful truth, that unto us, this child is born. Unto sinners,
unto those who have turned their back on the Lord, unto those
who have sinned against him, unto us, a child is born. You see, it's not unto those
who are perfect, because there is no perfect man. It is not
unto the rich, the powerful, the worldly impressive people.
You think who the Lord came to? Who did the Lord walk amongst
when he was in this world? Who were the first people to
hear the declaration of the coming of Christ? Shepherds on the hillside. Not Herod. in the palace. Not any wealthy people, not the
high priest even in Jerusalem. Shepherds doing their ordinary
business on the hillside. They heard that Christ had come. And you think of Christ as he
walks through his life. Who does he come to? Who does
he speak to? Who does he bless? A Samaritan
woman despised and hated by the Jews. Blind Bartimaeus, told
to be quiet because the crowds thought he was being a disturbance.
Fishermen doing their business and their jobs on the shores
of Galilee. Who does he bless? A thief, a
repentant thief, crucified for his sins, crucified for his actions. Christ comes to these people.
Christ blesses these people, not just to the rich, the powerful
and the impressive. It is unto them. It was for them
that Christ had come, that this child was born. Unto us, a child
is born. Do we realise what we are? Do we realise what we are in
the sight of God? That we are sinners? That we
have fallen? That we have failed? That we
have not obeyed his commands? Do we feel what we are? Not just
realise and acknowledge we are sinners. Do we feel what we are? Do we know that in our hearts? And does that grieve us? Does
that distress us? When we realise in God's eyes
we are sinners, we are filthy, we are walking in darkness by
nature. Do we realise what we are? Are we sorry over those sins? Or perhaps we're the opposite.
If we're honest before the Lord today, we think we're deserving. Do we think that we deserve the
Lord to come to us? That we have earned it? Well, if we realise something
of our sin, something of what we are in God's eyes, here is
a wonderful word, that unto us a child is born. That God has
looked upon this sinful world and God has come to sinners and
Christ has been born unto us. Now, if we received a gift from
someone who we didn't know, someone we'd never met, One element is
we would feel unworthy, wouldn't we, to receive that gift. We've
not done anything to earn it. We've never been kind to them.
We've never given them anything. We've not earned their kindness.
We're unworthy to receive that gift and this is exactly what
we are. Unto us a child is born and we are unworthy to receive
such a gift. So this is who the gift is given
to, to sinners. Secondly, who is the gift given
by? Who has given this gift? Because we are told that a son
has been given. Who has given the gift? Well, the wonderful truth is
this. This gift has been given by the God that we have offended,
that we have sinned against. Now this isn't the situation
of, well it's someone we just don't know, or someone we've
never met, or a cousin from Australia who has just given us a gift.
In a sense we're neutral, we've not been kind to them but we've
not been unkind to them either. This is a gift given by our greatest
enemy, you could say. Someone who we have offended,
someone who we have sinned against, someone who we have rejected,
someone who we have blasphemed, someone who we have turned our
back against. Now if we think that we had been,
if the Lord left us to be so unkind to someone, that we have
said such horrible things about them, we have spread horrible
rumours about them, we have perhaps even been physically violent
against them, and then they gave us our favourite gift, the best
present. That would be amazing, wouldn't
it? That they had given us a gift when we had been so unkind. And yet that is the sense that
we have here. This gift is given by the God
that we have offended. The God that we have rejected. And of course here then is grace. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. This is grace. It is a gift that
we don't deserve. It is a gift that we cannot earn. We deserve the absolute opposite. And yet God loved the world. And when we think what the world
is, what the world has become because of the fall, when we
think of the sinfulness in man's heart, when we think of the outworking
of that sin in the disasters and violence and hatred of this
world, and yet God loved the world. He didn't love what he
saw in the world, He doesn't love the sin, he doesn't love
the failures, he doesn't love the violence, but he loves his
people in the world. This is grace, that he should
look on sinners. that he should choose them and
love them, and that that love should be displayed, it should
be shown, his love would be manifested to them in this wonderful act
of grace. A son is given, his only forgotten
son. And we see the grace of Christ,
the Son of God, in willingly coming in obedience to his Father
and in love to his people, coming from the heights of glory, coming
to a manger in Bethlehem. Here we have the grace of God,
the gift given to his people. We have that well-known account,
don't we, of David and Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan,
the grandson of King Saul. And when David comes to the throne,
it would have been natural, it would have been understandable
to the people for David to have sought to wipe out the family
of King Saul. to not want anyone to be able
to claim the throne or to be able to rise up in rebellion
against David and his kingdom and yet we read that occasion
when it came into David's heart to show kindness to the house
of Saul for Jonathan's sake and he seeks after to hear if there
is anyone from the family if there's anyone left of Jonathan's
family that he can show this kindness to and it's told him,
as we know, that there is this Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan,
and he was lame in both his feet, and he was brought before David.
Now, if we try and consider what the situation was for him, being
summoned to come to the king, being summoned before him, not
knowing what was going to happen, not knowing if he was going to
be killed because of who he was, not knowing what King David was
going to do to him. And yet he was summoned and he
had to come. And he comes before the king
and we read that he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth?
And he answered, behold thy servant. He falls at his feet. He feels unworthy to be before
the King. He realised what could be the
perilous situation that he is in, how David may have him executed
on the spot. He doesn't know what is coming. He stands before who he thinks
could be his enemy, could be the last face that he sees and
yet David has a purpose of love. He has chosen to call him to
show kindness and David says, fear not, I will surely show
thee kindness for Jonathan my father's sake, will restore thee
all the land of Saul thy father, thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. He pours out kindness on Mephibosheth. He gives him gifts. He invites
him to his table to eat with the king's men. He receives what
Mephibosheth, in his own mind, would never have expected to
receive from David. David showed kindness. We could
say he showed grace to Mephibosheth. and he with joy received these
wonderful blessings we read that he ate continually at the king's
table. There's a picture, a small picture,
a dim picture of the greater light, the greater picture we
have here. The Lord who in his justice could
condemn the church, could send them to hell, would rightly,
justly cut them off because of their sin. And yet they, as it
were, fall before him guilty, realizing what they are. And
they hear this, a son has been given. You're welcome at my table. A gift. My love has been lavished
upon you. I have given what you need. Because you need a child to be
born. You need a son to be given. This is amazing grace. The gift has come to us, sinners. The gift has come from a holy
God. Thirdly this morning, how does
the gift come? How did the gift come? Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Let's turn these two phrases
round this morning and consider it the other way round. Firstly,
unto us a son is given. This is how the gift has come. It's in the word. It's being
given. Clearly that means it's not been
paid for. We haven't paid for this gift. It has been given. But consider
it like this. A son is given. God has given his son. And what's, I believe, contained
therefore by inference in these words is that the son existed
before. The Son has always been. He came into being in one sense
in the womb of Mary. That's when she received her
son, when he was conceived. But the Son had always been. He had been given. He had come. He belonged to the Father, as
it were, in the eternity of heaven, as the person of the Trinity.
and he's been given to his people. Here I believe we have the eternal
Sonship of Christ. The Son has been given. He is not created. He was not
formed. He did not come into being when
he was born at Bethlehem. He has always been He has always
been God. He has always been the Son of
God. Throughout eternity, He, with
the Father and the Spirit and the wonderful unity of the Trinity,
has eternally loved His people, has always loved them. He, in
that perfect union of will, has always determined that He would
come on that day to be born. He has always been and here now
he is given freely as the saviour of sinners, a gift to save his
people from their sins. When the angel came to Mary,
he read that he shall be called the son of the highest, the son
of the highest, the great God who has always been the son of
the highest. And of course that is seen in
those little glimpses, isn't it? Mainly we see his humiliation,
his humanity on earth and yet there are those glimpses of his
glory. Think of the time of his baptism. This is my beloved son. in whom
I am well pleased came the voice from heaven. Think of the time
when he was seen in his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Again, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. We
see glimpses of his glory even whilst he lived on this earth. A son is given, but also a child
is born. How does this gift come? The
child is born. He was born as a real man. A real man. He didn't, as it were, come down
as a fully formed man, as a fully formed grown up adult male just
to go to the cross, if I may say that reverently. He came
as a child. He came and was formed as you
and I are. conceived in the womb, brought
forth into the world and grew as a real child. He was born
like we are, though of course the Son of God by the miracle
of the virgin birth. But here we have a child being
born, we have his humanity. The Son of God and yet born as
a man, we see his humanity. And as he walks through the world
as a man, therefore we can know that he knows what it is to walk
in this world. He knows what it is to be tempted.
He knows what it is to suffer hardship. He knows what it is
and he is a suitable substitute for us. He is able to go to suffer
in our place as a real man. as a substitute for his people.
How wonderful it is that a child is born. It must be that way.
He must be born, be a man, able to be our representative, able
to suffer in our place. For us, a gift is given. A child is born You see, all
these truths all fit together. They must fit together. They
must all be true for there to be any hope for us. God must,
by His grace, send His Son because we cannot earn anything. We deserve
His wrath. God must come in a form of a
man. He must come as a child. He must come to be a man like
us. But he must also come the Son
of God, God able to bear our sins and carry our sorrows. A child is born, a son is given. God has given his best gift to
the Church. He's given the best gift to sinners. What do we know of this gift? What do we know of this wonderful
son? Have we, by his grace, received
this gift? Has it been given to us? Have
we seen the beauty of it? Have we seen the wonder of the
grace of God that he has given a gift to sinners at all? Do
we stand in amazement that the almighty holy God has sent his
son to us. Unto us the child is born. Is
that a truth for us? Do we know him? Perhaps this
morning we feel our unworthiness. You say it couldn't be a gift
for me. A child, this wonderful child,
could not be for me. This gift could not be for me. You consider how unworthy we
are. Consider how unworthy I am. How
far short I've come. I haven't just ignored the Lord,
I've offended the Lord. We've sinned against Him. You
say, how could this ever be for me? You say it's unto us and
yet surely it means it's unto them, to someone else. to the deserving, to the others
who know the Lord. It's unto them that the child
has been born, not unto us. I could never be included in
this. It could never be a word for me. It could never be a gift
that God would give me. I've gone too far. I've sinned
too much. I've wandered too far off. Well, if you feel like that this
morning, remember this. Remember who he came to. Remember
who he spoke to, remember who he blessed, remember who he saved.
I'm not come to call the righteous, he said, but sinners to repentance. And surely you can agree with
that. Surely you can agree to fit into the category of sinners.
And therefore, he speaks to you. If you feel how much you deserve
to be in that category of sinners, how much you feel the weight
of your sin, then here's the word that he speaks to you. I've
come to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous. He came to
sinners. He came to the poor. He came
to the blind. He came to the outcasts. He came
to sinners. Again, when the angel spoke to
the shepherds, Not the deserving, not the rich and famous, not
the righteous in themselves. But the angel didn't just announce
a general message, generally good news to all people. He said,
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord, to you. Now that means of course
to all of God's people, but I believe it also specifically meant to
the shepherds that the angel was talking to. To you is born
this day. They were poor, they were unworthy,
just like we are. You say, well I agree that I
fit in the category of sinner. I agree that I fit into the category
of poor and unworthy. Do you fit into this category
as well? The people that walk in darkness and those that dwell
in the shadow of death. Does that describe you? I'm walking
in darkness. I feel the shadow of death. I
feel the inevitability of judgment. I feel I cannot see where I'm
going. I feel I do not know the Lord who I long to know. Does
that describe you? Well, what does Isaiah tell us?
Those that walk in darkness have seen a great light. And they
that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath
the light shined. God has shone his light upon
those that walk in darkness, shone his light upon those that
walk in the shadow of death. And who or what is this light? The child that is born, the son
that is given unto us. Oh, today may all of us be helped,
be directed to see that it was for us, that it was for sinners, the
poor, those in darkness, and yet the light has shone And may
we be directed by faith to see this light as it shines from
the manger of Bethlehem, as He comes as God's gift to His people,
a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. May we know Him today. May we run to Him in our need. May we worship Him this week
This Christmas this year, may we join with the Apostle who
cried out, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. As we hope to consider this evening,
not only has God given a gift to the unworthy, not only has
he sent his son to those who don't deserve, And when we stand
in wonder that he is given a gift at all, as it were, as we consider
the gift itself, as we see that he is given one who is wonderful
counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father and the Prince
of Peace, I hope by the end of today we
are able to stand in wonder and love and praise that the Lord
would come to us and give us this gift. Thanks be unto God
for his unspeakable gift. May he add his blessing. Amen.