Thank you, ladies. I appreciate
that very much. Isaiah chapter number 9. Isaiah 9. I want to read one
verse to you this morning and then speak on the Savior's name. The Savior's name. Isaiah chapter
9 and verse 6. Isaiah, the prophet of God, speaks
by divine inspiration. He says, 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,
Mighty God, the everlasting Father, and he says, the Prince of Peace.
I have the greatest honor that a man can have this morning to
stand before eternity-bound sinners and set forth the person and
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I say it's the greatest honor
But it's an honor that really no man is sufficient to fulfill
like he ought to and like he wants to. Here's what Paul said
in 2 Corinthians. He said, who is sufficient for
these things? To set forth the magnificence
and the infinite wonders of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that
lots of people are honoring a babe in a manger. I'm thankful that
he came. And I'm thankful that he was
born bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. But I'll tell you,
he's not in a manger anymore. And he isn't hanging on a cross
anymore either. Having finished the work of redemption
that God gave him to do, He now sits upon his throne in heaven. And all the governments of this
world are upon his mighty shoulders. We just sang he rules the world
with truth and grace. That one I said before you this
morning is the governor of the nations. Isaiah says he's the
Child that was born. And he was the son who was given. He's the redeemer of sinners. And make God introduce him to
us today if he has not done so already. We must know him. We must believe him. We must
be found in him. You see, God demands perfection. God demands righteousness that
we can't produce. But thankfully, the word of God
says, this one who sits enthroned in heavenly glory, his name is
the Lord, our righteousness. May the spirit of grace, the
spirit of truth, lead us all to flee to him. And may He be
known by each of us. And He can only be known not
by reasoning. He can only be known not by research. But He can only be known by revelation. He has to introduce Himself to
you. This One who is Himself the light
It is only in His light that you can see Him. I'm not talking
about seeing Him with these eyes. Oh, every eye shall see Him when
He comes the second time. I'm talking about seeing Him
with the eyes of the soul. I'm talking about looking to
Him, looking to Jesus who is the author and the finisher of
our faith. Would God would be like those Greeks who came to
the disciples of our Lord in John chapter 12 and looked at
them and said, Sirs, we would see Jesus. Oh, that we would
have that great desire. Oh God, give me a sight, a heart
sight, a faith look upon the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
seeing Him unless He opens our eyes. In fact, we read Solomon
said, the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made
them both. Oh, that we could hear the message
of redemption, the message of reconciliation, the message of
substitution and satisfaction of the Savior, the Redeemer. the only one who could ever reconcile
us to God. Oh, that we could hear Him, to
hear His voice saying, Come unto me, all you that labor and are
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come unto me. That's not
an invitation, that's a command. Come unto me. I'm not inviting
you to the Savior, and I'm not saying accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. Here's what I'm saying. I want
God the Spirit to work in your heart and in my heart and draw
us by effectual grace to the blessed Savior. That's what's
necessary. I'm not asking you to do anything
for King Jesus. Don't feel sorry for Him. Don't
pity Him. He's not a failed reformer. He's
a successful Savior. He came down here for a purpose. The angel said to Joseph, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. Do you have any interest in being
saved from your sins? Let me tell you something, you're
a sinner. And I'm a sinner. And you folks out there watching,
you're all sinners. We're all in the same boat here. We're all in the same mess. But
thankfully God sent one into this world who is bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh and yet very God of very God. He sent him down here on a mission
of covenant grace and mercy to save the people that God entrusted
to him before the world began. And he did that by his substitutionary
death. He died that God might be just
and justify the ungodly. He died that God might be, as
you said, Wayne, to deny a just God and the Savior. How could
it be a just God and the Savior? Let me tell you this, if he's
not a just God, he can't be a Savior. He's a just God in punishing
the sins of His people when our Lord Jesus hung on the cross
of Calvary. With the penalty of sin being
death, Christ died. And because He died for His people,
we're not going to die. Not His people. His people live
forever. For He conquered Satan, sin,
death, and hell. The grave has no fear for the
child of God, and hell has nothing to do with us, because the Savior
satisfied divine justice on our behalf. Every drop of wrath that
was in the heart of God by way of vengeance upon sin, our Savior
drank all of that wrath till it was dry. Not a drop remains
for His people. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. I'm telling you who He is. This
is the Savior. This is the Savior. He's the
child who's born. He's the Son who's given. You know, our Lord asked His
disciples one day, as in Caesarea, came to Caesarea, and He talked
to them, and He said, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man
am? And they said, well, some say
you're John the Baptist. Others say you're Elijah. And still others say you're Jeremiah
or one of the prophets. How degrading to put our Lord
down to just one of the prophets. And then he looked them in the
eyes. His all searching eyes. He said,
who do you say that I am? Who am I to you? Who is Christ
to you? I ask that of each of you. I
ask it of me. Who is Christ to me? I'll tell you, Simon Peter, he
answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus said to him,
blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah. Flesh and blood hath
not revealed that to you, but my Father which is in heaven. Who is Christ to you? I know who he is to the Father. He's the only Savior of sinners.
He's the eternal Son of God. He was with Him in the beginning
when the beginning began. He was there. He was the one
who begun it. He's the Creator of all things. The Father knows who He is. The
angels know who He is. He's their Creator. Their Master. And when he came and was conceived,
that body that God had prepared for him from eternity past, when
he took up his residence in that body and was born in a manger,
the angels of God, they knew who he was, and they praised
God in the highest. And every sinner saved by grace
knows who He is. He's my Redeemer, that's who
He is. He's my Savior. He's my righteousness. He's my
all in all. Who is He to you? I'll tell you what, the Lord
Jesus Christ He is a very complex person. And that's saying a mouthful
and really saying a lot of things I don't understand. No wonder
we read great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. Did you hear that? 1 Timothy
3, God was manifest, the eternal everlasting God, the creator
was manifest in the flesh. And he was justified in the Spirit. And he was seen of angels. And
he was preached to the Gentiles. He was believed on in the world. And he was received up to glory
because he did the work that God assigned for him to do. The
work he volunteered to do from before the world began. His very being is beyond human
comprehension. In the same breath, the prophet
of God calls him a child, a child who was born and then the Son
of God who was given. Who is that who was born in a
manger? That's Mary's son. More than
that, that's God's son. That's Mary's child and God's
son. In the same breath, Isaiah calls
him a son and then calls him the everlasting father. In the
same breath, in verse 5, he calls him the warrior. What does a
warrior do? A warrior goes to war. And he went to war with that
fiend of hell and defeated him. He went to war with our sins
and washed them all away. Look at verse 5. For every battle
of the warrior, of the warrior, that's who Christ is, He's the
warrior. is with confused noise and his garments are rolled in
blood. He's soaked in blood. He's the
warrior. He went to war for us. His garments
were soaked in blood, blessed blood that washed our sins away.
And yet then he tells us in the next verse, he's a prince of
peace. He's a warrior, but he's a prince
of peace. You see, if He hadn't gone to
war for us, there would be no peace between us and God. Somebody had to satisfy God's
justice and bless the name of Christ. That's why He came. He
came to honor God, to glorify God. And He came to save poor
sinners like you and me. Turn with me. Hold your place
there. Turn with me to Matthew 22. Our Lord, toward the end of His public
ministry, He was teaching and Pharisees gathered around Him. Matthew chapter 22. Look at verse
41. Matthew 22, 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, Matthew 22, 42 now, saying, What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of
David. You know, just a couple of chapters
before this, or one chapter before this, in chapter 21, that's what
people were shouting when our Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem. Turn back, hold your place there,
and turn back to chapter 21, and look at verse 9. This is
what they call this triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Chapter
21, verse 9. And the multitudes that went
before Him, Verse 9, 21, chapter 21, verse 9. And that followed,
cried saying, Hosanna, that is, be propitious. Save us, we beseech
thee. Hosanna to the son of David. That's what they were yelling. Hosanna to the son of David.
Be propitious to us, satisfy justice for us. Be our mercy
seat. That's what they were yelling. Hosanna to the Son of David. And so now, our Lord Jesus over
here in chapter 22, He says, What think ye of Christ? And
they say unto Him, He's the Son of David. He's the Son of David. That's what people were yelling
as He entered into Jerusalem. He saith unto them, watch this,
verse 43, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord? saying, the Lord said unto my
Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then called him Lord,
how is he his son? This is a complex person. The Savior says if David called
him Lord, well, how can it also be said he's the son of David? and that confounded them. Wow,
that's a confounding question. And verse 46 says, and no man
was able to answer him a word. Neither durst any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. Who is Christ? Who is He? He's the child who's born. He's
the son who was given. Look at another reference. Look
over John chapter eight. John chapter eight. Our Lord
again, having been confronted by the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees, they were
the separatists of the day. By most people, they were considered
to be the holiest people on the top side of God's earth. and
a bunch of stuff they didn't do and a bunch of stuff they
did do out of religious ritualism. But they tangled with our Lord
because they went about to establish a righteousness of their own
by their own doings, by their own works, by their own deeds.
You're not doing that, are you? You're not so foolish as to think,
well, God's going to be pleased with me because I came to church
this morning. Because I'm thinking about Jesus
at His birth. I don't think that will cut it
with God, do you? I'll tell you something, someone
God's impressed with. He's impressed with His Son. And outside of Jesus Christ,
I promise you, he's not impressed with you or anything you've ever
said, done, or thought. Can't be. He's impressed with Christ. And
the only acceptance with God is in Christ Jesus. I know that's
true. Here's our Lord with the Pharisees. And they ask him, verse 53, John 8, 53. They ask him, are
thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead, and the
prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? Who do you think you are? I tell you what, but for the
mercy of our Lord, He could have sent them to hell right then. They said, Who makest thou thyself? Who do you think you are? Verse
54, Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth
me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet ye have not known
him, but I know him. And if I should say I know him
not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him, and I keep
his saying. Verse 56, he said, Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw. He saw my day and
was glad. He saw my day. When was that? I believe he saw the Lord Jesus
Christ's day when Abraham offered Isaac up as a burnt offering
to God, and God then said, stop and get the ram caught by its
horns in the thicket and kill that animal in the stead of Isaac. And in that day, Abraham saw
very clearly the doctrine of substitution. He saw Christ's day. He called
the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. This is the place where Abraham,
in response to Isaac's question, where is the Lamb? Abraham said,
my son, God will provide Himself a Lamb. And that Lamb is Christ Jesus.
And now hundreds and hundreds of years later, our Lord Jesus
said, Abraham saw my day. He saw me back then with the
eye of faith, with the eye of confidence, and he's glad. Tell you what, when we see by
faith Christ Jesus coming to put away our sins and establish
righteousness for us and satisfy all of God's demands and glorify
the Father, we're glad. Aren't you glad? I'm glad. I'm glad. It makes me happy.
People talk about a merry Christmas. I tell you what, the people of
God are merry in our hearts all the time. Our Lord gave the parable of
lost things. And that last part of the parable
about the lost son. He came home, and the father
said, let's kill the fatted calf and make merry. You want to be
merry? I tell you what, there's a merriment
in the hearts of God's people. Christ has come. He's done everything
a holy God demanded, and I could do nothing. But Christ Jesus
bore my sins in his own body on the tree and put them all
away and they'll never be resurrected against me again. They're gone. We're glad. I see our Lord's day by faith. Dying is the sacrifice. I'm glad. I'm glad God gave me eyes to
see. Verse 57, and then these smart
aleck Jews, they said to him, thou art not yet 50 years old,
hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, verily, verily. Now you know he's gonna say something
weighty right here. He loved to say verily, verily,
truly, truly, amen, amen. Well, Lord, what are you going
to say? I say, before Abraham was, I
am. Not I was, but I am. He's always I am. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, and today, and forever. He's always the
I am. He's the great I am. while he confronted Moses out
of a bush that burned but wasn't consumed. He called Moses and Moses went
over to see what's going on in that burning bush. And I said, Lord Jesus, you know
what he did? He introduced himself to Moses. He said, you go lead my people
to freedom. Well, Lord, when I tell them,
I'm here to deliver them, and they say, what? Who sent you? Who commissioned you to be our
leader out of Egyptian bondage to liberation and freedom from
captivity? Who shall I say has sent me,
Lord? Tell them I am, that I am has
sent you. I am. And now hundreds and hundreds
of years in the future, our Lord Jesus said, before Abraham was,
I am. You glory in Abraham. Abraham,
just a man saved by the grace of God, but he just a man. But
you talking to God incarnate right now. How complex He is. Look back over here at my text
just real quick. There's something about this
name of the Savior. It says in the second half of
this verse, and His name shall be called. His name. There's
something about that wonderful, glorious name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. David said in Psalm 9, 10, They
that know thy name will put their trust in thee. In Psalm 20, verse
7, he said, Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember
the name of the Lord our God. Isaiah 50, verse 10, Who is among
you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant,
yet you walk in darkness and hath no light? Jim, that's kind
of me. I know I believe Christ, but
sometimes I feel like I'm walking in darkness. Let him trust in
the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. The angel said to Mary, Ron read
it to us a while ago, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy
with John the Baptist, the angel said, Behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and call his name, call
his name, Jesus. And then the angel appeared to
Joseph and said, She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus. And when our Lord Jesus was eight
days old, that's the official naming day. A naming day for
Jewish babies. Probably the family gathered
around, I suppose, I don't know. They said, what you gonna call
him? Gonna call him Joseph Junior? What are you going to call Him?
And Joseph said, His name is Jesus. What are you going to
call Him that for? Because He's going to save His
people from their sins. And he got that message directly
from an angel commissioned from the Father in glory. He called
His name Jesus. What a name! Peter said in Acts 4.12, Neither
is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. In John chapter 1, we read verse 12, But as many
as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name. Oh, there's something
about that name, all right. There's salvation in that name. There's forgiveness in that name.
There's righteousness in that name. There's security in that
name. There's preservation in that
name. There's justification in that
name. There's glorification in that
name. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Romans 10, 13, we read,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Oh, His name. His name. The text opens up with a declaration
of a child being born and a son being given. There's his humanity,
that's his relationship to us. And there's his deity, there's
his relationship to God. And then Isaiah says, And his
name shall be called, what's his name? Wonderful. If we ever see just how wonderful
he is, we'll call nothing else wonderful. Wonderful. Beyond understanding,
that's what that means. It means marvelous. It means
a miracle. He's wonderful and His work is
wonderful. Because the work that He did
was way yonder out of reach of any of His creatures. We don't
have the power, we don't have the skill, we don't have the
knowledge, we don't have the perfection to render ourselves
acceptable to God, accepted by God. But this one whose name
is Wonderful, now that's a different story with him. What did Mary say? With God,
nothing's impossible. You say, Jim, I'm just a poor
old lost sinner. I can't do anything to please
God. I can't even wiggle my finger to please God. How can this man
who's so impure by nature, how can I be declared by God to be
righteous? Do you know? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.21,
For God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that
we might be made In order that we would be made, the word might
doesn't mean maybe we will, maybe we won't, that's not what it
means. It means in order that we would be made the righteousness
of God, get these last two words now, in Him. In Him. You see, you understand what
charging something to somebody's account means. Because this time
of year, Credit cards are red hot going in the machines, you
know. I suppose don't overcharge. Just
a little friendly advice. But we know what it means to
charge something. Let me tell you something. All
of the sins of all of God's people of all of the ages, they were
put to the account of our Lord Jesus Christ. And get this. even
before we ran up the debt. Because this happened way back
yonder in eternity past, forever. Christ has been responsible for
the indebtedness of His people. And our sins having been laid
to His account. Paul says in Romans 5, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly. The due date came. You know what
it means, a due date. I got a medical bill in from
my immunologist the other day. It says the due date was January
1st. Better get with it. So I wrote
a check, put it in the mail. I tell you what, our sin debt
reached a due date. And God said the account is now responsible to be paid
right now. It's due. And that's when Christ
died for our sins. He laid down His life. He said,
I have the power to lay it down, I have the power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. Well, the sins
that were imputed to Him, charged to His account, here's the question. Did He really pay the debt? Has my bill been canceled? Am
I still in debt to God or is God satisfied? And is the old
account, has it been settled long ago? I know it's been settled
because God raised him from the dead. And God welcomed him back to
heaven. Hear me, if he hadn't paid the debt in full and finished
the work that God gave him to do, he would not have been welcomed
back to glory. But he was. They said, lift up
the gates. Why? King's coming home. He's
triumphant! And the Father said, sit here
at my right hand, to make thine enemies thy footstool. I tell
you, his name is wonderful. He's wonderful in his person,
wonderful in his birth, wonderful in his life, wonderful in his
death, wonderful in all the names that he bears. He's wonderful in grace. For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul
said, 2 Corinthians chapter 8. He said, you know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your
sake. Can you imagine that? For your
sake. Let's put that on a personal
level. For your sake. For your sake. For your sake,
I go right around and you watching on TV, on computer, you're a
child of God. Christ who is rich, he became
poor. Hear me, for your sake. And I'm going to bring it real
close to home. For my sake. For my sake. He became poor. that we, through
His poverty, through His humiliation, through His sufferings and death,
that we might be made rich. Rich in grace, rich in mercy. Somebody said, we're going to
be rich in heaven. We're going to be clicking up
our heels on the streets of gold. I ain't concerned about the streets
of gold. I want to be with the king, and I will be, and all of his people
will be. What's his name? His name is
wonderful. He's a miracle worker, and he's the counselor. That
means one of honorable rank, like a justice or a judge. One who purposes, one who devises. He purposed and devised all things
before the world began. He stood as our counsel in the
covenant of grace. He gave counsel to His preachers. He said, go ye into all the world
and do what? Preach the gospel. That's what
He said. That's His counsel. He's our counselor, our advocate
at the bar of justice. What's his name? The mighty God. The mighty God. Though he joined himself to our
nature, he's still the mighty God. And
that infant getting nourishment from his mother's breast, that's
the mighty God. You're talking about complex.
You're talking about beyond comprehension. But you don't have to comprehend
it. Who can comprehend God? Who can search out God? That's
impossible. His ways are past finding out. And if His ways are past finding
out, surely His person is past finding out. But you don't have
to comprehend it. But He reveals Himself to babes.
like you and me. Shows us who He is, what He did,
where He is now, what He's doing now. He's a mighty God, mighty
to establish righteousness for us, mighty to redeem us, mighty
to save us. What's His name? He's the everlasting
Father. Well, Brother Isaiah, are you
confused about the Godhead? Are you confused about the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Spirit? He's not confused. He wrote by
divine inspiration, and His words are precisely accurate. He's
the Father of the spiritual seed, the church. He's the Father who's everlasting. We're born of His Spirit. We
have His name. We're under his care. We partake
of his provisions. We shall possess the inheritance
of our everlasting Father. What's his name? He's the Prince
of Peace. He is the peace by whom peace
comes. Paul said he made peace by the
blood of his cross. I heard a preacher one time say,
you know, God's not mad at us anymore. Christ made peace. God
has never been mad at his people. We've never been on the wrong
side of God. He's always viewed us in this
one who's the Prince of Peace. The Father gave us to Christ
in covenant grace and election. And God's always viewed us in
Him. Now we came to the realization
that we were in Him due to the regenerating power of the Holy
Spirit. And then we found out and we're
still finding out all of our salvation. Boy, it was purpose
before the world began. We just now find out about it.
And it's good news. You see, our Lord Jesus, He included
us in His last will and testament. He bequeathed to us all spiritual
blessings. And I tell you what, if Christ
is yours, you have everything God can give a sinner. You have
everything God can give one of His sons, one of His daughters. Oh, what a name. In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, I say with the hymn writer, oh come,
let us adore him. Oh come, let us adore him. Let's
sing, get a song book. Let's sing a final hymn. We'll
sing all the stanzas, 100. Oh come, all ye faithful. Oh
come, all of you who believe him. Let us adore him. And you who have not believed
him, may the spirit of God work in your heart, a work that he
must do, a wonderful work, a miracle of grace.