Isaiah chapter 9 The title of the message Christ
The gift of God The gift of God the greatest gift ever given
is Jesus Christ God's Son Our Redeemer, our Lord, and our God. Our Redeemer, our Savior, is
our God. As David said in the Psalm, he
said, God is become my salvation. God is become my salvation. God in human flesh. is become
my salvation. To me, that is just the most
awesome thought, that to think that God, in all that He is,
and we can't even begin to scratch the surface of the very being
of God. As Paul said, we know in part
and we preach in part. We look through a glass darkly
And we do, don't we? Our knowledge of God is very
limited and very little. And I'm talking about us who
the Lord has saved. It's very limited. It's very
little. And yet this God, this God took
upon Himself flesh, walked among us, ate with us, This man receiveth
sinners, and eateth with them." Well, this man who receives sinners
and eats with them is God. He's Almighty God. That's amazing
to me. I was thinking last night, laying in bed, I was thinking
of Enoch. Enoch walked with God, and my
thoughts My thoughts were, I want to walk with God. That was my
thoughts. I thought, I want to walk with
God. And then I thought, how condescending it is for God to
walk with someone like me. For God to actually walk with
a sinner like me. I thought, that's the amazing
part. That's the amazing part of grace. that God would come
to me, that God would be pleased to walk with me. And that thought
just astounded me. And I want us to look this morning
at our God. I want us to look at our God.
Now, the Gospel is said in the Scriptures to be a mystery. It's a mystery. Jesus Christ
is a mystery Himself. He's a mystery. Listen to these
verses of Scripture. In 1 Timothy, turn over to 1
Timothy. I want you to read this one. Over here in 1 Timothy 3. Now,
I took the time this morning to write down or
to go and copy and paste all these scriptures that I'm going
to read to you because there's no way we could do this and keep
it within a time frame that you can still pay attention. You
know, I'm aware of that. I'm aware of sitting there. I
know what that's like. So I took the time to do this,
but some of these I want us to turn to. And, uh, First Timothy
3.16, listen and read it with me. Quietly, but read it with
me. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
God was manifest in the flesh. Grace, without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. Listen to Colossians 4.3. With
all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door
of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. He's a mystery. What a mysterious
person. This person who grew in stature
and wisdom is also the wisdom of God. What a mysterious person. In
Ephesians 3, 9, and to make all men see what is the mystery or
what is the fellowship of the mystery. which from the beginning
of the world hath been hidden God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ. He's a mystery. Ephesians 6,
19, And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, Paul, he's
speaking of himself, that I may open my mouth boldly to make
known the mystery of the gospel. When I come here every week,
And I stand here to preach to you. I'm preaching to you a mystery. The mystery of the gospel is
what I'm preaching to you. And this mystery is revealed
through the preaching of the gospel to God's sheep. To everyone
else, it remains a mystery. You don't know what I'm talking
about. Oh, you may hear what I'm saying and you may intellectually
say, I agree with that, but you don't understand. It's never entered into your
heart, because if it does, you'll confess Him. You'll believe on
Him, if ever it does. And this mystery of the gospel
only becomes clear when you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. It
never cleared up to me who Jesus Christ is until I turned to Him. In thy light, we see light. It's in His light that we see
Him and understand who He is. Now, this mystery of the gospel,
this mystery of Jesus Christ is given to us, us who believe,
us, God's people. Now, in verse 6, listen. Unto
us. Unto us. Who are the us? Who are the us spoken of here?
Well, you know, in Isaiah 53, it says, to whom is the arm,
who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Well, the us spoken of here,
they are the ones to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed,
and they are the ones who believe the report. Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you understand
who Jesus Christ is? You are a part of the us. You
make up the us. The us are the ones given to
Him before He was given to them. We were given to Him before He was
given to us. Listen here in Hebrews 2, verse 13-14. And again, I will
put my trust in Him, and again, behold, I and the children which
God hath given Me. When? Before the world began. In the covenant of grace. They
were given to Me. And then he says in John 17,
six, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me. We were given to him before he
was given to us. Who are the us? God's Israel. God's Israel. You know, God's
Israel is scattered all over this world. Jew and Gentile. All who believe the gospel, all
who believe on Jesus Christ, make up God's Israel. You're
looking at a Jew. He is not a Jew which is one
inwardly or outwardly. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
that circumcision which is of the heart. It's not that which
is of the flesh. We are God's true Israel. I preach to God's Israel every
week. Every week I do. Who are the us? Us who believe. Us who believe. Now he says,
unto us a child was born and a son is given. We have first here the child
born. You know, there was a time, there was a time when the human
nature of Jesus Christ, the man, the man, Jesus Christ, did not
exist. Just like there was a time I
did not exist. Before October the 11th, 1955,
I did not, I was not in this world. That's hard to grasp,
isn't it? There was a time you didn't even
exist. And there was a time that the
human nature of Jesus Christ, that man, did not exist. That's
why it says here, a child was born. The child was born. Listen here in John 1.14. Well,
in John 1.1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. And the Word, it says in verse
14, and the Word, the Word that was with God and the Word that
was God, that same Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, walked among
us, lived among us. John said, we touched and handled
Him. We looked upon Him. We looked
upon the Word of life. We looked upon Him. And this
Word was made flesh, flesh. Like me and you. Me and you. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. This is His character. In Hebrews 10.5 it says this,
Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body, a body hast thou
prepared me. A body. A real human body, a
real human nature, a real human soul. A virgin shall conceive and bring
forth a son. He shall be born. Born. Come into this world like you
and I. Be identified with you and I. Born into this world. And then the son, he says here,
is given. The child is born and the son
is not born. See, here's the mystery. Here's
the mystery of Jesus Christ. He's a man. They said, we know
you're the carpenter's son, but now you who know him, you know
he's not the carpenter's son. You know he's God's son. He wasn't
born. This is the eternal God. This
is the eternal God. A son is given. God's Son is
given. In John 3.16, God so loved the
world, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, the second person of the Trinity. No less God. No less God. He's the Son. The Son is given. In 1 John 4.10, herein is love. Not that we love God, but He
loved us and sent His Son. Sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Sent His Son from glory. From glory. Whatever that is. I haven't seen
it yet. I've got a glimpse of it in Jesus
Christ. He sent His Son into this world
to be the propitiation for our sins. Oh, learn what that means,
and you'll have peace. For the first time in your life,
you'll have peace, real peace, when you understand that the
Son of God, that God in human flesh came into this world to
be propitiation for your sins. Your sins. Jesus Christ is the greatest
gift of God to us. It is God Himself giving Himself
to us. He's giving Himself to us to be a propitiation for our
sins. And this is why the Child is
born and the Son is given. You see, the Child is born to
represent us. God as God cannot represent me. There has to be a man just like
me. There has to be one just like me that can represent me. One who is like us except for
sin. One who is like us in every way
except for sin. He can represent us and one who
can satisfy God. Now, only God can satisfy God.
A mere man cannot satisfy God. If so, well, I was going to say,
if so, we could do that, but we can't do that either because
we're so sinful. We're so sinful. But what we have in Jesus Christ,
a man who can represent us, and we have in that man, God who
can satisfy God, because only God can satisfy God. It must
be perfect to be accepted. And only God is perfect. No one
else, no one else can do that. One who can satisfy, one who
can represent. One who can satisfy the demands
of justice and one who can be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God and be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. What a mysterious person. The
world doesn't see this, but you see it. You see it. You see it in Jesus Christ. One who has the right and power
to redeem a near kinsman. I need a near kinsman. God has
made it very clear that the only one who can redeem is a near
kinsman. God as God is not a near kinsman. God is holy. You know what that
means? Other than. That means other than. God is
other than I am. God is light, I am darkness.
God is holy, I am sin. God is other than I am. But I have a near kinsman. I
have a near kinsman in Jesus Christ. Boy, we need the child born and
the Son given. We can't have one and not the
other. But we have in Jesus Christ all
that we need. The Son and the Child. And listen,
God has put up on this man, Jesus Christ, this child born and this
son given, God has put up on his shoulders, the government.
The government. Now this gives me great peace. I read this and read this and
read this. You know, our government to me
looks like it's gone completely off the edge, completely off
the cliff. That's what it looks like, but
I know this, I know this in my heart, that the government, the
government of the church, the government of the world, the
government of the angels, the government of the universe is
on his shoulder. I looked that up in the Strongs,
I believe it was, and the meaning is the burden, the burden. is laid upon His shoulders to
govern the whole universe, to bring all of this to an end,
to a close, and that it all serves God's purpose, and God's purpose
is done, it's laid upon that Man, Jesus Christ. Listen to this in Isaiah 21-22,
And I will clothe Him with Thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle,
and I will commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be
a father." We'll see this in a minute. "...he shall be a father
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And
the keys of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder."
I'll lay it upon his shoulder. Now listen, "...he shall open, and none shall shut. He shall shut and none shall
open. That's power, isn't it? If he
shuts, nobody opens it. If he opens it, nobody shuts.
If he opens the door, it's like in this, you know, I've been
praying, I have, I've been praying to the Lord will open the door
for us to preach the gospel to this community. You know, we
were on a radio program, but I wasn't happy with that radio
station. And I've been praying about it.
And I know this, if he opens that door, no one will shut it. But if he shuts that door, nobody's
gonna open it. When he shuts, it's shut. When
it's open, it's open. That power, that authority is
in His hands. It's in the hands of our Lord.
In Matthew 28, 18, And Jesus came and spake to them, saying,
All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. This man, this
Galilean, this Nazarite, All power and all authority has been
placed, has been turned over, has been vested in Him. It's His. It's His. Right now. Right now. It's His. Listen to 1 Corinthians
15, 25. And I had all these Scriptures
copied down because I want us to hear this from the Word of
God. I don't want you to just hear this from me. God's Word
is powerful. If He quickens His Word in your
heart, you'll never be the same. You'll never be the same. In
1 Corinthians 15, 25, for He must reign till He hath put all
enemies under His feet. Now, when's this gonna happen?
It's happening. It's happening whether people
realize it or not. Some of you do. He's reigning
right now. The government is on his shoulder
now. God the Father has turned over
all authority to Jesus Christ. He has complete rule over heaven
and earth. He said in John 17 too, Father
thou has given me power over all flesh. over all flesh. Now this child
born, this son given, who has all authority and all power,
all governments on his shoulder, what's his name? Wouldn't you
like to know his name? When you hear somebody that's
got that kind of authority and power, would you not like to
know who he is? Tell me his name. If you'll notice
here, these names that we go through, see here, it's spoken
of in the singular, isn't it? It's not spoken of as plural
names. What's His names? That's not it. His name, it says. His name. You see, all of the
Godhead. Now listen, this is important.
All the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ bodily. All that God is, you know, all
the names of God, we've heard them over the years. Jehovah
said, can you, you know, all these names, but it's a name. All of it's in one person. It's
all in one person. Just like the gifts, the gift
of the spirit. You know, it speaks of joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindness, but it doesn't call them gifts. It
doesn't, it calls it gift. Because if you have one, you
have the other. You have all the rest, and they're all, it's
all like one fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. Not fruit to the
Spirit, fruit. And here it's name, His name. Now it starts out here, and it
has to start out here. It can't start out any other
way. It cannot start any other way. His name shall be called
Wonderful." Wonderful. You remember back in Judges 3.18,
when Manoah asked the angel, he said, what is your name? And
he said, my name is Secret. It's the same meaning as the
word here, Wonderful. Wonderful. It's secret, it's
a mystery, until He makes Himself known to you. Paul didn't know
him. Paul hated him until God revealed
Christ in him. And then he fell in love with
him. And then he found out who he is. But his name is wonderful. And it starts here because in
his person, he's wonderful. In his work, he's wonderful. In his reign, he's wonderful. What would it be like if any
of the rulers right now, right now in this world, if they had
all power and all authority given to them? There'd be tyrants. There'd be
an absolute tyrant. There'd be dictators. But all
this power and all this authority is given to the man, Jesus Christ.
And he uses it. He uses it for us. The us, unto
us. He uses it for us. He uses it
out of love. He directs it out of wisdom. My, what a wonderful person is
Jesus Christ. There's no other name given under
heaven whereby we must be saved. What a name. What a wonderful
name we have in Jesus Christ. His name is Wonderful. And then it says, His name shall
be called Counselor. Someone said it should read like
this, Wonderful Counselor. You can put Wonderful after each
one of these. Wonderful Counselor. Our Lord
is the Counselor. He said, As I hear, I speak. As I hear, as God speaks to him
as a man. See, here's the mystery. He's
God speaking to himself as a man. He's God, and then he speaks
to himself as a man. And he says, as I hear, I speak. I speak. He's counselor. When the gospel
is preached, Here every week, you and I come together here
every week. You know that the Lord is counseling
us. I know people like to set themselves
up as counselors. You can watch these religious
programs, repeat a prayer after me. Now, if you need any help,
we have counselors on the phone. Don't ever set yourself up as
a spiritual counselor. Don't set yourself up that way.
God uses us to help one another, but Jesus Christ is the counselor.
He's the counselor. It's through Him we receive wisdom
and knowledge. It's through Him we receive guidance.
Is that not so? Does He not guide us by His Spirit? Listen to Isaiah 28.9. Whom shall
He teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine? Them that are weaned from the
milk and drawn from the breast. He's talking here of his children.
Now, who's gonna teach them knowledge? And who's gonna give them understanding
of doctrine? Who's gonna give them understanding
of the teachings of the word of God? Where are you going to
get that? You're going to go to a seminary
and get that? You're not going to get that. You're not going
to get it there. You're going to go to a secular education,
college. You're going to take some religious classes. You're
going to get an understanding there. You absolutely won't get it there.
You're not going to get it there either. I tell you how you're
going to get it, is that Jesus Christ counsels you. He counsels
you. He says over in Revelation, look
over in Revelation 3. In Revelation chapter 3, look, let's get out here in verse
14. And unto the church of Laodicea
is write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true
witness, the beginning of the creation of God. And let me say
something here. Let's not ever use the word amen
in a vain way, you know. Do I hear an amen? And people,
you be talking about something that's just totally unrelated
to the gospel, and people say, amen to that. His name is amen. God's name is amen. That's one
of his names. These things saith the amen,
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
I would thou were cold or hot, so then, because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because
thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked, I counsel thee. I counsel thee. to buy of me gold tried in the
fire, that you may be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest
be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear,
anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. I counsel
thee, he shall be called the counselor. And then his name
is called the mighty God. You see, this is why he's so
wonderful. Not only is he our counselor,
he's the mighty God. He's the mighty God. He is God in the flesh. Listen to this scripture. He said, I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, which was,
which is to come, the Almighty, the Almighty. Hebrews 1.8, But
unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,
a scepter of righteousness, is a scepter of thy kingdom. He's
the mighty God. That's who He is. He's the creator, the sustainer,
the giver of life. That's who Jesus Christ is, the
mighty God. If you wanna know who God is,
look no further than Jesus Christ. Study Him. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. That's to learn of God. And then
he says here, He's the everlasting Father. You see the Father and the Son
are one. He said in John 14, he that has
seen me has seen the Father. Show us the Father. He said,
you're looking at the Father. You're looking at Him. There's
no difference. They are one in essence, one
in attributes, one in person. The whole Godhead dwells in him.
He said, you're looking at the Father. He said, have I been
with you for so long a time and you still don't know me? You
still don't know who I am? The Father, the Prince of Peace. He's the Prince of Peace. The
Prince means he's the head person. He's the head person, it's who
he is. And he's a prince of peace. I
looked this up, it means safe. How safe are you? Really? I have nothing ever in my life
to be afraid of. You know that? I really don't.
I'm safe in the shepherd's folk. It means happy. This is real
spiritual happiness. He's the prince of peace. And
it means welfare. He looks after my welfare. He
does, both spiritually and physically. He looks after my and your welfare. And not only is the Prince of
Peace, he is our peace. He is our peace. Let me read something to you
out of Zechariah 6, 9-13. And the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Take of them of the captivity, even of Hildei,
and Tobijah, and Jedei, which are come from Babylon. And cometh
thou the same day, and goeth to the house of Josiah the son
of Zephaniah, Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and
set them upon the heads of Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest.
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,
Behold, the man whose name is the branch," That's Jesus Christ. "...and he shall grow up out
of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord." He shall
build the temple of the Lord. And it's not out of stones. It's made with hands. This is a stone
made without hands. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne,
and the council of peace shall be between them both. The council of peace. He's the
prince of peace. He is our peace. He's our peace. All of this, all of this is bound
up in this one child born and Son given, whose name is Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Our Lord. And I'm going to close
with his success there in verse 7. And on the increase of his
government and peace, there shall be no end." There's an end to
all government. All governments on this earth,
just look at history. There's an end to them. He puts
an end to them. He raises up and he brings down.
There's an end to them. There is no end of His government,
His reign, and there's no end to His peace. There's no end
to it. Upon the throne of David and
upon His kingdom, to order it is exactly what's going on right
now. That's what's going on. He's ordering it. He's bringing
it to pass. To establish it, He's establishing
it right now. with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even forever, and the zeal, the jealousy."
That word means jealousy. And it also could mean this,
the fervent love of the Lord, of hosts, the army, the armies
of heaven and earth, all are His, will perform this. It will happen. I promise you. I promise you. this will happen.
He's going to have His kingdom, and there's going to be no end
to it, and there's going to be no end to the peace of His kingdom,
and He's going to perform it. He's going to bring it to pass.
This is what is happening. This is what's happening. Boy,
if there's anything I could stress to you, because this is what's
just Really drives me I guess for lack of a better word is
what really drives me is this is real This is what's going
on. This is what's happening you know all the other that's
going on out there is uh Let me let me read you something
here. Let me see if I can find it. Let me Let me see here Oh, verse 5 in Isaiah 9, 5. For every battle of the warrior
is with confused noise. You see, that's what we see going
on out here, isn't it? It just looks like confusion.
It looks like confusion. It's noise and confusion. We were watching something the
other day, back when they were killing each other with swords
in the battle, and I was watching a documentary, and they were
talking about The dust was so thick, you know, they couldn't
hardly see, fighting each other, they had raised up so much dust.
And I said to Vicki, I said, can you imagine being choked
to death by dust in battle like that? There's so much confusion
in the dust of the battle. And the garments rolled in blood.
But this he'll be with burning and fuel of fire. In other words,
the final victory is of the Lord. And he'll burn all this up. When
the battle is over completely, all of this is gonna be burned
up. The Lord Jesus Christ will have
the victory. He will have the victory. He's a Prince of Peace,
but now let me tell you something. He's also a warrior. He's also
a warrior. We're going to cry for the rocks,
mountains that fall on them, and hide them from the wrath
of the Lamb. And the zeal of the Lord is going
to bring this to pass. This is going to happen. Set
your heart and your mind upon the Lord Jesus Christ. My soul,
set them upon Him. Do your job as unto the Lord. Don't quit and go hide in a cave. Do your job. Do it as unto the
Lord, the best you can. But never lose sight. The government's
on his shoulders. And he's bringing this thing
to a close. And you and I are part of it. We are a part of
the victory. All right. We're going to go
downstairs.