Isaiah chapter 9 is our text
this evening. Isaiah chapter 9, a child born,
a son given. That's what I want to talk to
you about. A child born, a son given. From Isaiah chapter 9. This morning, we noted the first
word of chapter 9, which is nevertheless. Oh, what a word from God to his
people. Our Lord had spoken of well-deserved
wrath and judgments that were gonna fall upon apostate Israel. But he followed that up by saying,
nevertheless. And whenever God says nevertheless,
He is saying, there is hope. I have some good news for you. In wrath, I do remember mercy. Matthew Henry, the great commentator
of many, many years ago, had an interesting statement. He said this, in the worst of
times, God's people always have a nevertheless. In order to comfort
themselves, God gives us something to kind of calm and relieve our
troubles. Nevertheless. I rejoice to say, as did David
the psalmist, When I misbehave and when I don't conduct myself
as a child of God like I ought to, I rejoice to say with David,
nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. Whenever God chastens me, I'm thankful to remember that
my Heavenly Father has said, nevertheless, my loving kindness
will I not utterly take from thee. And though like Israel, it seems
we would provoke our God to anger, It is written, nevertheless. Nevertheless, he regarded their
affliction when he heard their cry. And though we often believe not,
do you find yourselves often not believing God like you should? We sadly have to admit that's
correct. We don't believe God like we
ought to. We're still assured of God's
faithfulness, because he says in 2 Timothy 2.19, nevertheless,
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord
knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity. And though, as Peter writes in
2 Peter 3, though we should see this world dissolving and coming
to an end, Peter says, nevertheless, we, according to his promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. I'm thankful for that huge word
of comfort, nevertheless. It sure does help me, and I hope
it helps you too. In chapter nine, verse one, the
Lord says, and of course in the latter part of chapter eight,
he's talking about the judgments that are gonna fall upon apostate
Israel. He says then, nevertheless, things
are not gonna be as bad as they were back in the olden days. That's what he's saying in verse
one. When various cities in Israel were surrounded by enemies and
cut off from the rest of the nation, the Lord said, the judgments
I'm gonna send are not gonna be that bad. And then he says
that they're not gonna be as horrible as they were when the
Assyrians attacked and surrounded the capital city of the Northern
Kingdom, Samaria. And they did that for three long
years. Lord said, it's not gonna be
that bad. And he said, here's the thing of it, after these
judgments, They're not gonna be more judgments, but he said,
after those judgments, I'm gonna show mercy. I'm sending you good news. That
after those judgments do befall you, in verse number two, he
says, the people that walk in darkness, they've seen a great
light. He speaks as though it had already
happened. He says, They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them the light hath shined. He's giving forth good news to
people who don't deserve any good news. This light is the
light of the gospel of God's grace. This light is our Lord
Jesus himself. We're certainly not deserving
of any word of mercy or grace or salvation from heaven, but
God sends it regardless of that which we are by nature. It's
a nevertheless. You're in bad shape, you're guilty,
you're filthy, and you are defiled. Nevertheless, I'm gonna send
you the light. of the gospel of Christ. And
then in verse number three, he says, thou hast multiplied the
nation and not increased the joy. What he's saying is the
physical nation of Israel, their joy is not gonna be increased,
but I'm going to increase the spiritual nation of Israel and
that'll bring joy to my people. The joy as of a time of harvest. You who plant your gardens, and
you begin to see the tomatoes turn red, and your beans coming
in, and the corn growing on the ear, and you know you're gonna
have corn on the cob here before long. You rejoice, you rejoice
in anticipation of the harvest. God says, I'm gonna send a harvest. I'm not going to send leanness.
I'm going to send a harvest of souls. I'm going to send forth
the gospel and there will be an increase in the kingdom of
God. More people will be converted,
notwithstanding the apostasy of Israel. that they have forsaken
me as a nation, I'm going to bless my people and I will increase
the number of those who believe the gospel of God's grace. And
then he says in verse four, he says, thou has broken the
yoke of his burden, the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his
oppressor. God says, I'm going to break
Break the captives free, I'm gonna set the captives free.
I'm gonna break the oppression. And then he says in verse five,
he says there's gonna be a warrior. A warrior's coming and he will
confuse people. And this warrior's our Lord Jesus
Christ. And here's what's confusing to
the world, that which appeared to be his demise, his own death. His sufferings, His bloodshedding,
the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross of Calvary, that which
is confusing the people is this, that was His great triumph over
sin and over Satan. And that confuses people. They
don't know why did He have to die. Not confusing to you, is
it? You know why He had to die, that
God might be just and justify us. And as I said this morning, this
shall be with burning and fuel of fire. Our Lord Jesus consumed
all the fuel of our sins that fed the fire of God's wrath.
Christ exhausted the vengeance of God. And when our sins had
been fully paid for according to the divine standard of justice,
there was no more wrath poured out into his soul. Nevertheless,
nevertheless, notwithstanding of what you deserve by nature,
God says, I'm gonna pour out my grace. I'm gonna save my people. Well, the question ought to arise
in your heart. The question that arises in my
mind is this, how will these promises be fulfilled? How's there gonna be light to
those who are in darkness? How's God gonna multiply and
increase the number of his people? How's he gonna liberate those
who are in bondage? How's he gonna give victory through
a great warrior? These comprehensive promises
of grace sound very wonderful and delightful. But to the people of God back
in those days, they seemed terribly unlikely to ever come to pass. How can the Word of God be fulfilled? How can these things be done
in such a way that God is honored and men are saved? How can it
be that people in spiritual darkness will suddenly have light in their
hearts, be enlightened? How can it be that this little
remnant that seems ever so, so little, so very small, how can
it be that they will multiply and more people will be saved
by the grace of God? How will there be a great harvest? And how shall the yoke of the
oppressor be broken? And who is this warrior who's
gonna come? His garments will be rolled,
soaked in blood. How's this all gonna be brought
to pass? Who's gonna conquer our enemies? And verse six gives the answer. For unto us a child is born. This is how God's gonna do it.
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. And of the increase of his government
and peace, There shall be no end upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. How do we know
this is all gonna be done? The zeal of the Lord will perform
this. Now, this evening, I just want
to take that first statement of verse six, for unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. That's as far as I'm gonna go
tonight. I'll get the rest of it, the
Lord willing, next Lord's Day morning. Here, Isaiah is inspired
of the Spirit of God to talk about a child, a son and a governor. Our Lord Jesus is presented in
this threefold way. He's the child who's born. He's
the son who's given. And he's the governor who will
rule the world for the glory of God and for the good of his
people. So let me show you these things.
First of all, he declares the humanity of Christ, and therefore
his relationship to us. That's important. Here's the humanity of Christ,
and therefore his relationship to us. He's gotta have a relationship
to us. After all, the first man, Adam,
he had a relationship to us. He was the father, the federal
head of the human race. If we're to have a savior, who's
suitable for us, who can meet our needs and satisfy all the
demands of God, he's got to have a relationship with us. I'll
say it this way, he's got to be a relative of ours. That's
what he's got to be. He's got to be bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh if he's going to help us, because that's
what we are. It was a man who got us into
this mess, It's gonna take another man, the God-man, to get us out
of it. He says, for unto us a child
is born. Take that word child, look it
up, it means man-child or lad-child. And then born takes in a twofold
meaning, begotten and presented. Begotten and presented. Here was the custom with the
Israelites. A child was born, baby's born. They washed the baby, they clothed
the baby, and then they went out to the family. and went out
to the relatives, and they said, here he is. It's our boy. You see our boy? And all the
family, all of the relatives would say, oh, ain't he beautiful? I'm so thankful that God gave
him this child. I tell you, our Lord Jesus is
our relative. And God presents him to us. Because
you see, two times, this little bitty expression is used, unto
us. You see that? Who's the us? His relatives. The us, that's
his family. The us, that's the elect of God. The us, that's the remnant according
to the election of grace. For unto us, not to everybody,
not to the whole world, not to every person who'll ever live,
but this child, this man-child who'll be born and presented,
he's presented to the family, to the relatives, Those whose
names were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life from before
the foundation of the world. And thus, a child is born. And I'll put it this way, we're
his poor relatives. And that's right, isn't it? We're
his poor relatives. We're his sinful relatives. He's
the sinless one. He's the elder brother of the
family, but the rest of the family, we're guilty of sin. But Hebrews chapter two says,
he's not ashamed to call us brethren. He's not ashamed to call us family. He's not ashamed to say, these
are my relatives. Hold your place here and turn
over to the book of Matthew. Look at Matthew chapter 12. Matthew
chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12, look at verse
46. Our Lord's preaching. I tell you, it helps me to remember
he was a preacher. He was a preacher. Never a man
spake like this man. Matthew 12, 46. While he yet
talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren,
his half-brothers, His mother and his brethren stood
without outside desiring to speak with him. They told somebody,
said, need to talk to the Lord Jesus. And so one of them goes up to
the Savior and kind of interrupts him. Says, behold, thy mother
and thy brethren stand without and they want to talk with you. Well, he didn't drop everything
he's doing to go talk with Mary and his brethren, but he answered
and said unto him that told him, who is my mother? And who are
my brethren? In essence saying, who are my
family? Who's my family? Who's my relatives? In verse 49, he stretched forth
his hand toward his disciples, toward people who believed him
and loved him and worshiped him and adored him. He stretched forth his hand toward
his disciples and said, behold, here's my mother and my brother,
here are my relatives right here. He said, for whosoever shall
do the will of my Father which is in heaven, The same as my
mother and my sister and my brother, my relatives, my relatives. How utterly amazing that our
Lord is not ashamed to put himself in a position
to be our relative, to be one of our kin. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. We're his family. Behold, therefore, the humiliation
of our Savior. Though he comes to save his people
from their sins, and therefore to reign as king forever by virtue
of his successful sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, Though
he comes as governor to rule over all, he's born into this
world as a little man child. And in his state of humiliation,
he is as helpless as you were when you were born into this
world. He required the labor of his mother, the
work of his mother, the provision of his mother, the sustenance
he drew from her milk. He needed the care of her hands
just like any other baby. He needed the warmth of the blanket
in which he was wrapped. This representative man, he came
for his relatives, for his family. And our Savior, just like us,
is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He subjected
himself to temptations. Read again, first part of Matthew
chapter four, He subjected himself to physical necessities of thirst
and hunger and sleep. But more than that, as a man,
he had to suffer the indignities of his enemies who stripped him
of his clothing and nailed him to a cross and they sat there
to watch him suffer and bleed and die. And all of that was
entertainment for his enemies. You see, he assumed a nature
that was capable of suffering. God can't suffer. God is spirit. God can't feel any pain. But this one who was born a man-child
and grew up to be the man Christ Jesus, he sure felt pain. He felt it physically and he
felt it in his soul. And when he bore our sins in
his own body on the tree, the Father forsook him, and our Savior,
the man Christ Jesus, cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? You'll never be forsaken because
he was forsaken for you. And he was forsaken by God because
God's holy. The heavens aren't even pure
in his sight. He charges his angels with folly. And there's our savior by imputation,
laden down with all of the iniquities of all of his people of all ages. And the father turned his back
on him. Had he remained just God, Christ
couldn't have suffered. So Hebrews 2 said he had a body
to suffer and to die because death, that's the wages of sin. He assumed our nature. He didn't
take on him the nature of angels. Angels can't suffer and angels
can't die. He took on himself our nature because he's a family member. He's the head of the family. Paul says in Romans 8 3, for
what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. His flesh wasn't sinful as is
ours, but he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin
in the flesh by his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. In
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to see the death of
your sins. That's where they died. You say, I don't feel like they
died. Don't matter how you feel, it's what God sees. You're justified by that death. You're justified by that bloodshedding. God Almighty is satisfied. Sins put away, everlasting righteousness
brought in. You say, well, I didn't know
anything about that. I know you didn't know anything
about it until the Spirit of God taught you about it, but
hey, it had already happened. It is already justified by Christ. He came to redeem his people,
not the entire race, not Adam's entire race, but those given
him in the covenant of grace. You know, when I was thinking
about it this afternoon, looking over my notes, when Joseph and
Mary finally saw their family members, Joseph would have said something
like this to all of you. It's my honor to announce and
present to you my wife's firstborn son, conceived
by the power of the Holy Ghost, and his name is Jesus. And I'm telling you, that's really
what preachers do. I present to you every time I
preach, I present to you the Lord Jesus, the Savior of sinners. It's my honor to do that. It's
my honor to announce He's come, He's lived, He's died, He was
buried, He arose again, He ascended, He represents us in glory. It's my honor to present Him
to you. Hey, that's what John the Baptist did, didn't he? He
said, behold, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. That's what he did. He announced
him. He proclaimed him. He said, he's before me. He's always been before me. He
existed before I did. Isaiah speaks of the humanity
of our Savior. That's His relationship to us. You got that? That's His relationship
to us. And then here's the second thing.
He says, unto us a son is given. That's His relationship to God. See, he's got to have a relationship
to us, but he's got to have a relationship to God, an eternal relationship
to God. And I'll add to what I just said,
he has an eternal relationship to us because he's the lamb who
was slain from before the foundation of the world. As the son of man, Christ is
the child born, That's his relationship to us, but as the son of God,
he's the son who was given. That's his relationship to God. No wonder Paul said, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. That's a mystery
you're never gonna figure out. How that little infant that little
man-child that Mary birthed into this world
after carrying him nine months in her womb, having been conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit. And she gave birth to that baby,
and after washing him off and all that had to be done to then
put the garments on him, And she looked in his face. She's
not only looking in the face of her baby, she's looking into
the face of her God, her savior. You can't explain that. That's a miracle of grace. He's God come in our nature. He's God, he's got to be God,
and he's man, he's got to be man. Man has broken God's law,
a man must repair it. But man's obedience to God's
law is impossible unless that man is also God. Man had sinned and man must die,
but his death, the death of a mere man, could never satisfy the
justice of God. That's why this man-child was
the infinite God. The infant is the infinite one. His deity gives merit to all
that he did. And he's the gift of God. It
says, unto us a son is given. God gave him to us. God gave
him to the family. He gave his son to the family. He gave His Son to the family
in covenant election. He gave His Son to His family
when our Lord Jesus was born. He gave His Son to the family
when He turned His back on His Son, pouring infinite wrath into
His Holy Soul. He was giving His Son for us. And even now through the preaching
of the gospel, he's giving his son to family members. And he gives us the will and
the desire and the faith to receive him. What do you think about
that? You see, our God has left nothing
undone. He took care of everything and
He'll make sure that you repent and believe the gospel of Christ
Jesus. God will make sure of that. And
then He's going to keep you safe and keep you saved. because you're
under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your sins have been washed
away. You're made the righteousness
of God in him. And one of these days, God's
gonna make sure that you leave this body and go to be with the
elder brother of the family, Christ Jesus, the Lord. God's
gonna see to it. His son is one of the Godhead. And he was given for us, unto
us, unto us. This great light was given unto
us. This one who'll bring about a
spiritual harvest was given unto us. This one who will break the bondage
and the captivity of sin and Satan and death was given unto
us. This great warrior will enter
into the battles that were necessary to be fought and won. He'll do
it all unto us. It's for the family, for the
family. What would you do? What would
you do? What would you give if your family
was in danger? Why, you'd do anything, wouldn't
you? Anything that you could possibly do. He saw our dilemma
and he loved his family with an everlasting love and he did
that which was necessary to secure our everlasting safety and salvation. That's what our brother did. Oh, what a brother is Christ
our Lord. What a relative, what a relative. And he did it for us. And then, Isaiah proclaims the
exaltation of Christ, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder. Remember, Isaiah is talking about
the God-man, the Redeemer, and he tells us, as a result
of his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross,
God has put the government of everything on his shoulders. The government of all creation,
of all the universe, of all the world, of all the peoples on
the shoulders of King Jesus, our brother. I don't know anybody in state
government, even local government, I don't know anybody in federal
government. I don't know anybody that's got any authority, but
I know the king of kings and the lord of lords, because he's
a relative. What about that? He's a relative. So you can't say, Jim, you don't
know anybody. I do know somebody, and I know
somebody because somebody knows me with an everlasting love.
The king, the governor. the governor of all creation,
the governor of all providence. He is continually moving and
arranging and doing His will with everybody and with everything. He's a governor of providence. There's no accidents. There's
no bad luck. There's no good luck. There's
Christ, the sovereign governor. And he governs his church. Paul
says in Ephesians 1, he's the head of the church. Head of the
kingdom. Who's the head of the kingdom?
My brother. My brother. My older brother. Somebody said he's larger than
life. Well, I don't know about that.
I know he's real. And he's the governor of all
grace. The governor of all grace. And
he gives grace to the graceless. He gives mercy to those who are
sinful. It's just like Samson when he
went and got that honey out of the carcass of a lion and he
goes to his parents and says, I got honey for you. Our Lord Jesus comes to us with
spiritual honey. His hands are full. What are
they full of? All the spiritual blessings that
were given us in him from before the foundation of the world.
And he comes to his family and says, this is for you. Forgiveness
is for you. Righteousness, this is for you.
Guidance through life, this is for you. I'm working all things out for
your good, this is for you. I'm overcoming all your enemies,
this is for you. And when the day comes, when
we draw our last breath, the Lord's gonna say, this is for
you, come on home. What a relative. What a relative. The man-child
is born. But the Son of God, he wasn't
born. The human nature of Christ was
created, but Christ being divine, no creation involved there, except
that he is the creator of all things. God and man. What a miracle of grace. to come
down here and save the family. And if he's our elder brother,
and I'm a believer and you're a believer, that makes us brother.
Makes us family. We love the family, don't we?
We appreciate the family. We pray for the family. Thankful
to God for Christ. our savior, our lord, and our
king, the man, the son of God, the governor. There he is. Well, let's sing a closing song.
And if you need it, it's number seven in your black folder. Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus.