name we pray, amen. I didn't ask John to, but in
the providence of God he read the scripture that I plan to
preach from. So if you will return to Isaiah
chapter 9. Now the prophecy of Isaiah regards
coming judgment on both houses of Israel, that is on the northern
tribes and then later on the southern tribes. And this happened
anywhere from 100 to 150 years, that it was prophesied by Isaiah
100 to 150 years before it ever came to pass. He even prophesied
of their return to the land. even giving the name of the king,
Cyrus, who would give the order for the Jews to return to their
land. And here in this portion of Isaiah, as with much of Isaiah,
it's back and forth between pronouncements of judgment, promises of deliverance. Pronouncements of judgment, promises
of deliverance. And here it says in verse six
of Isaiah chapter nine, for to us a child is born, to us a son
is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and
he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice
and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the
Lord Almighty will accomplish this. This certainly is a prophecy
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as with nearly all
Old Testament prophecies, there was a fulfillment, a short-term
one, and then the ultimate one in Christ. And so here we have
judgment being pronounced on what we might call natural Israel,
natural Israel and Judah, and it's prophesied that there will
arise another who will restore them. And the reason I point
this out is what's being spoken of here is a king. In other words, when they were
defeated, when Israel, the northern tribes, was first defeated by
the invading army of the Assyrians,
I believe. And then some, I can't remember
exactly how many years later, a good many years later, before
the southern tribes in Jerusalem were destroyed. But of course,
those kings of those countries were deposed. the governments of those nations
no longer existed. And the promise was that salvation
would come to the nation, and salvation that involved a
reunification of the nation, but it would be done by the Fulfillment
of this promise of a new king. Salvation is the work of a king. Now, we don't know much about
kings because we, as Americans, have never lived under a monarchy,
and that's good. monarchies, the form of government
in which there is just one person who is the legislature, makes
the laws, enforces the laws, and judges whether or not you're
guilty of breaking the laws. When that's all in one person,
well, the fate of the nation is entirely wrapped up in that
one person, whether they are good or bad at what they do.
And so countries that have been under monarchies, particularly
those monarchies that are passed down from generation to generation
within the family, they are just under one king, everything goes
well, under the next one, it's just a mess. And when our form
of government was devised, they spread out the three basic functions
of government across many people. And of course, you can't write
a constitution. You can't write a form of government
that will perfectly govern sinful people. But as someone once said, this form of government, our
constitution, is the second worst form of government there's ever
been. Someone said, well, what was the worst? He said, everything
else. And this is probably just about the best you can get. But
you can see what a mess that can be. But here is the promise
of a king. And we know that kingly things
are being spoken of because it says, verse 7, of the increase
of his government. And it says he will reign on
David's throne and over his kingdom. So whoever's being prophesied
here is not coming simply as a military commander. He's not
coming as one who will simply overthrow or break the chains
of bondage brought about by these armies the Lord sent to punish
them. This is a full-fledged king and Understanding monarchy,
that means in this single person would be gathered together all the authority and power necessary
to prosper the nation, all in one person. You know, this was
never perfectly fulfilled. When they came back, They came back piece by piece,
and there was Zerubbabel to help, and he was kind of a governor,
a quasi-king. But Israel never did have a natural
king that could fit the description given here. Only one. has ever been able to fulfill
all that this has to say. It says, unto us a child is born,
to us a son is given. Now some have tried to say that
this is hinting at the fact that the Lord is both human and divine,
because a child, a human being, was born. But you know the Son,
the Son of God, He was given. The Son of God can't be born,
he's everlasting. That's not the point that's being
made here. It is certainly true that God the Son is an everlasting
being. John called him the Word, and
he said, in the beginning was the Word. In other words, the
Word was already in existence when the beginning of our reality
came about. What is being spoken of here,
though, is a rightful king. That word child, the translated
child, is a masculine noun so it refers to a boy child. It
couldn't refer to a female child. So the distinction here between
these two lines is not merely to us a human child is born and
he's a son. No, a child is born. Have to understand this within
the context of the way kings carried on their lives. As we have noted as we're going
through the book Song of Solomon, Solomon had 700 wives and 300
concubines. No telling how many children
that man had, male children. But though they were all male
children, They were not all counted sons, sons, heirs. And so what is being said here
is unto us, a boy child is born. Now that does speak of the incarnation. Our Lord Jesus Christ was born
into this world a human male or male human, a boy, an infant. In fact, he came into this world,
as we can now understand with our biological understanding,
his initial existence was as a single cell within Mary's womb. That's an amazing thing. But
I guess it's really no more amazing that he should exist in a fully
formed human being. That the infinite God would ever
become a human being is beyond our ability to comprehend, but
he did. here it says unto us a son is
given and by this it means a rightful heir, a rightful successor to the throne. That's why it says he will reign
on David's throne. He's called the son of David
and that made it gave him the right to to sit on that throne
because God had made an everlasting covenant with David saying that
one of his descendants would sit on the throne forever. This is that son. The son has finally been given.
Solomon, he was faithful more or less. It was mostly a string of kings
that were just a mess. Some could claim David as their
fathers, some not. But the Lord Jesus Christ, David, is truly his ancestor. And therefore, he has a right
to sit on that throne and fulfill that everlasting covenant made
to David. And then it says, and he will
be called. And four names are given here. And you can imagine
that if someone was gonna rule over you, were gonna be an absolute
monarch over you, you would want him to have these qualities. Wonderful counselor. Now, you know, I like to look
up things in the original language. And wonderful counselor is reasonably
good. And if they'd been strict about
it, it would have sounded real weird to us. But actually, the
word wonderful is not an adjective. It's a noun. And the word counselor
is a verb. not a noun, for those that understand
grammar. You might say, put it this way,
and he will be called the counseling wonder. He is a wonder in every aspect
of his being. But in his counsel, in his wisdom,
he is an absolute wonder. Do you remember when he was 12
years old and his parents took him to the temple? And they left thinking he was
in the crowd that left with them, and later they found out he wasn't.
And it was several days before they could get back to where
he was and find him. And where did they find him?
They found him in the temple. And what was he doing? He was
instructing a 12-year-old boy. I don't know if they did bar
mitzvah back then, You know, a Jewish boy today, there was
no bar mitzvah till you're 13. Well, he'd have been younger
than that. He's 12, and he's sitting there teaching, teaching
those who are supposed to be the teachers of the law, the
scribes and the other religious leaders. And they were amazed
at his understanding. He was a wonder to them. I've met a few young people in
my time who impressed me that their knowledge and wisdom seemed
to be far beyond their years. But while they were impressive,
they weren't a wonder. It wasn't mysterious. It wasn't
unexplainable. They were just ahead of the curve
for people their age. But the Bible says of our Lord
Jesus, in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He knows everything about you. He understands you. Now Paul
said in Romans 7, I don't understand myself. I don't understand what
I do. The Lord Jesus Christ does. He understands every bit of it.
He has wisdom about us because it was He that made us. He has
wisdom about us because it was He that came into the garden
saying, Adam, where art thou? And challenged Abraham to confess
what he had done. It is our Lord Jesus, as the
Word of God in this world, whenever God has appeared, it's been that
Word, it's been God the Son, the Revealer, who has come. And he has been involved in all
human activity. He holds the heart of every person
in his hand, even kings who seem to be so powerful to us. He turns
them as he wills, just like the rudder of a ship. He understands us. He understands
us as sinful fallen creatures. He understands us as those who
have experienced the new birth, who believe Him. And while in
our prayers we may cry out, Lord, I don't understand. On the one
hand, I love you, and yet I don't act like I love you. On the one
hand, I say I love righteousness, yet I do so much wickedness.
I say that I am devoted to you, and yet so little time and attention
is put to you. Lord, I don't understand how
I can be a believer and yet be the way I am. The Lord does understand. He's the counseling wonder. But more than this, he understands
God. How's that? He is God. He's God manifest
in the flesh. He has not only remarkable and
wondrous human understanding, he has all divine understanding. And by his spirit, he counsels
his people. And he is a counseling wonder. Now we have, in our days, the
business of counseling, the business of psychology. And I'm not saying
it's bad. It's beneficial to many people.
But just as in everything else, the counseling offered by humans
while from time to time it is good and helpful, you'd never
call it a wonder. You can't walk into any counselor, anybody who has set up shop for
you to come in and have your hour of time talking with them
or listening to them. And in one session, you walk
in and he doesn't even have to ask you any questions about who
you are. He doesn't have to take down your name and phone number
and insurance card. He doesn't have to say, what's
the problem? He already knows. He doesn't
have to say, well, what do you think you should do about this?
Because he knows what you should do. He knows what you need. He knows the words that need
to be spoken to you to bring comfort to your heart in the
midst of your troubles. Now, I study and prepare. I do
the best I can. Do you know what amazes me more
than anything? I get up here and I preach something, and maybe
something will come to me while I'm preaching, and I just say
it almost as a, a throwaway line, just something added in there. And someone will come to me later
and explain or tell me what a wonderful blessing that was to them and
how much it helped them, and I'm standing there. I barely
remember saying it, much less that I predict the need that
it be said. nor was I aware of your particular
need, but the Lord was. And I have preached messages,
and I thought that such and such was the subject. And maybe it
was in the way that I set it up and preached it. But somewhere
between me preaching it and you hearing it, the Lord changed
it to what you needed to hear. And people have come up to me
and told me what they got out of the message. And I'm thinking,
I didn't even know that's what I was preaching about. Oh, he's a counseling wonder. He can come to those who are
dead in heart, and by his counsel give life." Wonderful counselor, mighty God. Now, we always think of the word
God in terms of a deity. The word could be translated
simply as a very powerful person or being, because sometimes humans
were even assigned this particular word. L, E-L, and actually you find
it in a lot of Hebrew names like Nathaniel, which is the word
for, the Hebrew word for to give or a gift, and then the word
E-L at the end, God, and the name Nathaniel means gift of
God. So in saying mighty God, what
it's saying here, or it's pointing out, is not as much his divine
nature. That's not his point, it's his
power. It's his power. Now there's no
question that our Lord Jesus Christ is God, God with a capital
G. And I have no problem, I mean
it's perfectly legitimate to interpret this as he is the mighty
God. But when I look at things like
this, I try to look at them in the culture in which they're
being spoken into, you know, originally. And that word, God,
just means very powerful one. Super powerful one. And certainly
we have one described as wise and now as powerful. Mighty, powerful. A being beyond
the powers of others. And our Lord Jesus Christ certainly
is that. Once again, I want to make sure
you understand I'm not denying that he's God. I just think that
the issue here is his power. When Moses stood there at the
Red Sea, and he says, stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord, and he puts that rod, his staff out there, over the Red
Sea, and the waters parted, who do you think did that? I said,
well, God did that. Yes, this God. Our Lord Jesus did that. I say our Lord Jesus, I realize
he had not been born and been given the name Jesus yet, but
it is God as he would appear in later times in human flesh. He did that. He's the one that
spoke from Sinai. He's the one that led the Jews
into Israel and drove out their enemies before them. People talk about the miracles
of Jesus, and they start with things like the wedding in Cana.
I'm sorry, the miracles of Jesus start with creation. He's the
one that made the world. He's the one that rules it. There
is nothing more powerful than Him. and he's called the everlasting
father. Father signifies one who cares for others. A good father is merciful to
his children. A good father provides for his
children and protects them. And that's why kings were looked
to somewhat as fathers of the nation. But as I pointed out earlier,
the trouble with monarchies is, that is your natural monarchies,
these fathers, no matter how good they were, they eventually
died. And often The son that would
rise up in his place was some ne'er-do-well who'd been raised
pampered in the palace and didn't really know what it was to live
life and had no care nor love for the common people. After Solomon died, and there
was arguments among his son about who was going to be king, and
finally one of them rose up and, you know, he said, you thought
my father taxed you a lot. Well, you just wait until you
see what I do, you know. And that's what so often happens
in human monarchies. But look here, this is the everlasting
father. He's never going to die and leave
his throne and someone else take it up, someone else who may not
be a counseling wonder, who may not be a mighty powerful one. God has seated him on the throne
and he will be there forever. I'm glad. There'll never be a
change of king. Every four years, half of our
country is glad that four years from now they're going to get
another chance to change who's president, you know? I don't
ever want this one to change. He's the everlasting father. And there's no problem with also
equating that with the fact that, remember Philip said to him,
show us the father and that will be sufficient for us. And he
says, have I been with you so long? Philip, and you don't realize
that he, that I and the Father are one, that he that has seen
me has seen the Father. He's the everlasting Father. And then he's the Prince of Peace. Some kings are powerful. Some kings understand humans, but they are warrior kings, and they are constantly trying
to expand their empire through war, and the country is never
at peace. Either that or they are so weak
that they can't defend their nation. and other kings rise
up and challenge them and trouble the people. But that's not the
case here. Here is the Prince of Peace.
First he's the Prince of Peace because he came into this world
and the world hated him and yet there was a chosen people in
that world with whom he was able to make peace and not make peace
by compromising with them by negotiating with them and saying,
look, I'll give in on some of my demands if you'll kind of
increase your efforts to fulfill my demands. No. He made peace through the blood
of his cross, peace between God and men. At his birth, what did
they say about him? Said, unto you is born this day
a Savior, a Savior. And they began to sing, glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace. And he is now making many of
his enemies into friends. He's not just making peace by
subjugating his enemies. He turns them into friends. And
in the end, he will destroy all his enemies and all the enemies
of his people. And there will be nothing but
pure, perfect peace for the people of God because of this one, this
one child born, this one son given. shall be called the Counseling
Wonder, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Back in chapter 7, verse 14. Therefore the Lord himself will
give you a sign, the Virgin will be with child and will give birth
to a son, and we'll call him Immanuel. And that name Immanuel
means God with us. See that L at the end? That's
the word for God. God with us. That's what he's called. You know that popular Christmas
carol? modern Christmas carol, Mary,
Did You Know? It's a pretty one, and it asks
some very deep questions, one that I always remember. I'm not
sure I get the words exact right, but when you kiss your little
baby, you kiss the face of God. It's an amazing thing to think
of, isn't it? our God here with us. We can conceive of God as way
out there, the transcendent God, the God beyond our comprehension. And we could stand in utter fear
of him, but we could never understand him. We could never know that
God. And we can never become him.
So what did he do? He became us. And He came in a form with which
we can communicate. And even though He has ascended
to the right hand of the Father, yet He says, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. He says, we're two or three or
together together. There I am, Emmanuel, God with
us. God with us in every situation.
God with us at all times, in all circumstances, guiding, providing,
protecting. I know there are times that we
feel horribly alone. Even as we're surrounded by those
who love us, we can feel disconnected, alone. But the believer, even if he
was abandoned by everyone in the world, he is never alone. At all times, his God is with
him. because that's his name, Emmanuel, God with us. And then turning quickly to Jeremiah
23, Jeremiah 23, verse five, the days are coming,
declares the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous
branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and
right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved
and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he
will be called, the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah, our righteousness. Of all the things we need, we
need righteousness. We don't have a single drop of
it, not in the way God perceives things. But here we have one
whose very name is Jehovah, and that's the name of our God. He
is Jehovah, our righteousness. I look at my life and I'm very
disappointed in it. I'm very disappointed in the
things that I have done and continue to do. And if I had to be my
own righteousness, there would be no hope for me. But here,
Jehovah himself is my righteousness. And if Jehovah is my judge and
he is also my righteousness, how can I fail? to gain, if that's the right
word, gain anything other than His full blessings. Because God's
never gonna find fault with Himself. And He is my righteousness. He's
called Emmanuel, counseling wonder, mighty God, everlasting Father,
the Lord, our righteousness. Now, turn to Matthew chapter
one. Matthew chapter 1. The angel is speaking to Joseph, assuring him that it's okay to
take Mary to be his wife even though she's with child, because
this is no ordinary child. And in verse 21, she will give
birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because
he will save his people from their sins. Now, again, that's
a suitable translation, except it does hide the point I'm trying
to make. What it says here strictly is,
she will give birth to a son, and you are to call his name
Jesus. Now we saw in the scriptures,
we looked at in the Old Testament, six names, Emmanuel, Counseling
Wonder, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, the
Lord our Righteousness. And it always says, and he shall
be called, his name shall be called. This is the name by which
he shall be called. And here the angel says, you
will call his name, Jesus. All six glorious names wrapped
into one. For in that name, Jesus, which
in the Hebrew version would appear is Joshua, or people that like
to pretend they know Hebrew, Yeshua,
However you pronounce it, Joshua, what it means is Jehovah is my
savior or Jehovah is my salvation. That's what it means. And all
those six names we looked at before combined together make
up what? Salvation. That's His name. Isn't it wonderful to think that
the name of our God, when He comes to be among us, He comes
in the name of salvation? to save us, he must be with us.
Well, he's Immanuel. In fact, it goes on here to say
in verse 22, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had
said through the prophet, the virgin will be with child and
will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel,
which means God with us. So in naming him Jesus, they
were fulfilling the prophecy that he would be called Immanuel.
And in every other name that they gave to our Lord Jesus in
the Old Testament, it's fulfilled when they gave him that name,
Jesus. I know that sometimes people
refer to Jesus because, and this happened, you know, as baby boomers,
I think we're the first one to try to popularize it because,
you know, we wanted to act like Jesus was cool. And before then,
they may talk about Jesus, but nobody ever addressed Jesus as
Jesus. In their prayers, they always
said, Lord Jesus. And you'll find that even among the apostles.
They may refer to Jesus when they spoke to him. I always spoke
to him with honor and such. And because of that, people have
said that Jesus is the name, and I've heard this from faithful
men, Jesus is the name of his humiliation. No, it's not. It's the name of his glory. Every
glory ascribed to him and the prophets is fulfilled in that
wonderful name. And it says, at the name of who?
Jesus. Every knee will bow. He is God with us. We should bow to Him. He is the
counseling wonder. Oh, do you need to know anything?
Go to Him. Ask Him. Seek Him. He's got the answers.
He doesn't just know the truth, He is the truth. You feel weak? He's the mighty
God. You feel uncared for, unprotected? He's the everlasting Father. You feel troubled? It's Jesus,
our Savior, is the Prince of Peace. You feel your sin? His name shall
be called Jesus. For he will save his people from
their sins. For his name is the Lord, our
righteousness. Oh, in calling him Jesus, they
called him everything. In that name, Jesus is bound
together and bundled up in one glorious name, all that God is
to us in his saving, redeeming grace. And all those other names you
find of him in the Old Testament, they are just parts of this one
glorious name. So when that angel said to Matthew,
and I'm sure Matthew didn't understand it, Mary, did you know? She didn't
know it, you know. I saw someone here, and this
was a couple of years ago, and they were trying to mock that
song a little bit. They were religious conservatives, you know, and
they said, Mary, did you know? And he says, yes, no. She didn't understand everything.
One of the things I like most about what is recorded about
Mary And it's a shame that, particularly when it comes to Christmas time,
it's almost like she's the main star of the show, you know. But
there are things about Mary that are praiseworthy. And when she
heard about the fact that she was going to give birth, it says,
and Mary pondered these things in her heart. We need to learn to do less yakking
and more pondering. We are being told things far
beyond our ability to grasp. And sometimes the best thing
to do is, just like she said, you know, when she said, how
can this be, seeing that I do not know any man? And the angel
went on and said, well, the Spirit of the Most High will come upon
you and what is conceived in you will be of the Spirit of
God, you know, and it'll be called the Son of the Most High and
all this. And, you know, and she's standing there and she's
listening to it. You think she understood that? Folks, we don't
understand that. We can say the words, but there
is a point at which we can have to say, like David said, such
things are wonderful. They're too high for me. I cannot
attain unto it. Cannot understand it. She just
pondered them in her heart. I believe there's another time
when it says the same things. Some stuff went on that might
be a little confusing. And she did the right thing.
She just pondered these things in her heart. And you know, when
we talk about our Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes it just, probably
most of the time, just the best thing, ponder it in your heart.
Certainly before you start saying, ponder what you've heard. But
here is this wonderful thing, this name Jesus. Ponder upon that in your heart. It is enough to meditate on for
the rest of your life. You will never exhaust the riches
and glories of that name. It's the name above every name. It's the name of our God. It's
the name of our salvation. It's the name of everything for
which we hope and in which we hope, Jesus. Heavenly Father, thank you for the one who bears
that glorious name, and thank you that you sent him in that
name, that you did not give him the name such as Daniel. meaning God is
judge. We know that in time to come
you will judge the world in righteousness by him who bears the name Jesus.
But now he comes to us bearing the name salvation. Our Father,
we claim no favor from you except in that blessed name. Impress
it on our hearts. And in that name we pray, amen.