Thank you, James. Open your Bibles,
if you would, to the book of Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter
9. Now, we looked this morning a
little bit at the last few verses of the 8th chapter. In the 8th
chapter, the Lord states the wretchedness of Israel. They've
been listening to the wrong voices instead of listening to the voice
of God. Instead of listening to the scriptures,
instead of listening to his word, instead of listening to his evangelists
and his prophets. They had been listening to those
who were dead themselves. They had been listening to those
whom he describes as having, they were mutterers and peepers. And they didn't seek God. They didn't seek the Lord. They
didn't seek Christ. And God said He would send, therefore,
judgment upon them. He would send days of darkness. He would send them into captivity. And though they, the nation,
all of the nation, deserve to be destroyed, they deserve to
be absolutely cut off. They deserve to be brought to
an end. The Lord says in chapter 9 verse
1, nevertheless. Nevertheless, He wasn't going
to destroy them because He had a remnant, a remnant according
to the election of grace among the nation of Israel. God always
has His people. In days of darkness, days of
ignorance, days of wickedness, in days when you wonder, is there
anybody who believes the gospel of grace? Are there any in the
Lord's people still, still around? The answer is yes, there are
some. There are some. Because God,
according to His eternal purpose, He ordained a people that would
be His people. He loved them with an everlasting
love. He chose these people unto salvation
in the Lord Jesus. This blessed Savior came into
the world and He redeemed His people. He reconciled His people
to God. He absolutely removed all of
the sins of all of His people. And for His own, He brought in
everlasting righteousness. So God says to the nation in
chapter 9 in verse 1, nevertheless, the dimness, the darkness, the
days of difficulty and trouble, they're not going to be like
that they were in her vexation when he first lightly afflicted
the land of Zebulun. in the land of Naphtali, and
afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the
sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations." He says there's
still going to be some trouble. There's still going to be some
afflictions, but it's not going to be as severe as it was before,
he says. But I am going to send you these
light afflictions. And these light afflictions,
they were like, well, in the book of Revelation, John speaks
about the judgments he calls trumpet judgments. And this is
what all of these trumpet judgments are. They are warnings of a judgment
that is to come. That is, God brings these little
judgments, not only upon nations, not only upon a group of people,
but sometimes He brings these lesser judgments upon individuals. And this is what they are, they
are warnings. That there's a great judgment
we're going to have to face. There's a judgment that's absolutely
according to righteousness. And the one who is going to sit
on the throne of judgment is God's own Son. God has given
all judgment over, John chapter 5 says this, He has given all
judgment over to the Son of God. And the Son of God, He will Himself
sit upon this throne of judgment. And all shall stand before Him. And these lesser judgments, God
brings them upon nations. He brings them upon groups of
people. And oh, that we would listen.
Or that we would take notice of these lesser judgments, like
the land of Israel, like the people of Israel. God brought
these light afflictions up on these people. You say, why are
they called light afflictions? Because they are light afflictions
in the sense that they can bear up under these, but no man can
bear up under the final judgment. Not in yourself. The only way
you can stand accepted in the final judgment is to stand in
the judge himself. You've got to be found in Jesus
Christ the Lord. You must be washed in His sin-atoning
blood, and you must be robed in the glorious garments of His
righteousness. Only in the Lord are we accepted. There is no acceptance outside
of Him. And these lesser judgments, these
afflictions, that God brought upon Israel. He says they're
like afflictions. They're like in comparison to
what we deserve. We all deserve wrath. We all
deserve death. We all deserve judgment. We all
deserve condemnation due to our own guilt, to our own sin, to
our own rebellion against God. Thank God there's mercy with
the Lord. Aren't you glad? The wages of
sin is death. There are no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ the Lord. The gift of God. He gave the
gift of His only begotten Son. He gives the gift of life. He
gives the gift of spiritual life. He gives the gift of everlasting
life. He gives the gift of eternal
life. What is eternal life? It's to
know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent into this world. So these
are light afflictions, God said. I'm going to send them. And when you see judgments that
God sends through the world, earthquakes, awful diseases. Just remember, all of these great
calamities, they all speak to us of a final day of reckoning. Our brothers sang in that song,
The Love of God. There'll be people in that song
who refuse to pray. And in that day they'll call
on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them
from the face of the Lamb that sits upon the throne. Oh, for
your soul's safety, for the glory of God, flee to Jesus Christ
the Lord. He's the rock of our salvation. There's no security, there's
no safety, there's no mercy, there's no grace to be found
anywhere else except in the rock. Christ Jesus. Flee to Him. Plead
to Him for your soul's safety. God said He's going to send these
afflictions. And then notice what He says
in the second verse. He says, the people that walked
in darkness, they've seen a great light. They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, on them hath the light shined. God says He's going to send light
to those who sit in darkness. Light to those that sit in darkness. And isn't that our natural condition? We sit in darkness. Those that
sit in darkness. That's idleness. We sit in darkness. The darkness of ignorance. The darkness of false religion. The darkness of error. We sit
in darkness and then we walk in darkness. That's our progress. We're walking in darkness. People
who walk in darkness can't see where they're going. They can't
see where they're going. There's no light. There are people
all around us, people all over the world walking in spiritual
darkness. They don't know, they don't realize
they are standing on the very precipice of eternity. But they
can't see. People say to me sometimes, why
don't people believe? The Bible is so clear about judgment
to come. About mercy with the Lord. Why
don't people flee to Jesus Christ the Lord? They are blind, that's
why. They are dead, that's why. They
don't know the danger, that's why. They are walking in darkness,
but God says they are going to see a great light. There is a
people in this world who will see a great light, and the great
light that they will see is Him who is the light, Christ Jesus
the Lord. And you and I and several others,
we were walking in darkness and in a sense we sat in darkness. And then God sent a great light
to us. And He's got to do that. He's
got to send light to us in our darkness. We dwelt in the land
of the shadow of death. And on them the light shined.
You were in the valley of the shadow of death. You were spiritually
dead and facing everlasting death, at least as far as you were concerned. Although the people of God have
never faced it. Not really. Because we've always
been safe in Christ Jesus. But we didn't know anything about
it. We didn't know anything about it. We dwelt in the land of the
shadow of death. Death was all around us. Death
was in us. And on us, the light of the gospel
shined. The glorious gospel of Jesus
Christ, the glory of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ Himself
has shined on us. He illuminated us. Notice verse
3, Thou hast multiplied the nation, Not increase the joy. That's
a natural multiplication. But the joy wasn't increased.
But there is a joy that He's going to give as in the joy of
a harvest. As men rejoice when they divide
the spoil. He's going to send a real joy
to some people. There are going to be some people
who will be made to rejoice in the Lord. And then he says in verse 4,
For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden. The Lord is going
to break the burden. The yoke of the burden upon his
people. And the staff of his shoulder
and the rod of his oppressor as in the day of Midian. In other
words, God is going to take care of your enemies. And verse 5,
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments
rolled in blood. Whenever men are fighting a war,
there is a lot of confused noise going on. And garments that are
rolled in blood from those who are wounded and those who die. But he says this battle, the
battle that he is talking about which is a spiritual battle,
which is a battle for the soul, a battle for the soul, This shall
be with burning and fuel of fire. It'll be with the word of God.
God said, isn't my word like a fire? It burns. It burns its way into us. I tell
you, those of us who are the people of God, we're more than
conquerors through him who loved us. Through him who loved us. And the Word of God comes to
us. It burns its way into us. It's fueled by the fire of the
Holy Spirit of God. Remember when the Spirit of God
was given in Acts chapter 2? It was given with cloven tongues
as a fire. and the Spirit of God comes to
us and He burns. He burns the gospel down into
our hearts. He burns away the draws. He burns
away the death. He burns His way into us. This
is not our decision. This is not our work. This is
not the result of anything we do. Here's the sovereign Spirit
of God. Our God is a consuming fire and
He comes to us through His Word and He burns His way deep into
the soul and He conquers us. He conquers us. Now the question
then might well be asked, how's this all going to be accomplished? I mean, you're talking about
people who walk in darkness seeing a great light? People who dwell
in the land of the shadow of death being brought out of the
shadow into the light, into life? How is it that people who are
sorrowful, people who are troubled, people who are afflicted are
suddenly going to joy as in the joy of harvest? and the yoke of bondage under
which they labored. Who's going to break the yoke
of bondage? Who's going to take care of the
enemy? All of the enemy forces that
are against God's people, how in the world will we get out
from under that bondage? How will we be brought into liberty? Who's going to fight this battle
for us? We can't. We can't win the battle. The forces of darkness, the forces
of evil, the forces of sin, our own nature, our own nature is
against us. The devil is against us. The
world is against us. How in the world can we possibly
be victorious? Here's the way. For unto us a
child is born. This is the answer. This is the
answer. God's going to send somebody
to do a great work. And it's the work of salvation.
For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And this
will be good news to you. It will be good news to you if
God ever convinces you you're in the land of darkness. You're
in the land of death. The enemy has far more power
over you than you even are aware of. This will be good news to
you when you're made to realize that Satan holds you captive
at his will. This will be good news to you
when you're brought to see you're held in captivity by your own
sinfulness. That you're in bondage to the
Law of God. That the Law of God has arrested
you. The Law of God has an issue with
you. The Law of God says the soul
that sinneth shall die. And you're a sinner and you're
going to die. It will be good news to you when
the Spirit of God shines the light of the Gospel in you. It'll
be good news for you. that God's sending somebody into
the world to take care of all your problems, take care of all
these issues. He's going to bring forth light
because He is the light. He's going to take you out from
under the shadow of death because He's also the life. And He's
going to conquer every enemy of your soul. In fact, He's going
to take captivity captive Himself. And He's going to set you free. He's going to give you liberty.
If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. He's going to do it. He's going
to do it. He's even going to liberate you. He's going to free you from the
torments of a guilty conscience. Oh, preacher, my conscience is
bothering me. Let me tell you when a conscience
bothers you. And this is for the people of
God. You say, oh, I'm not what I ought to be. Oh, your conscience
is going to bother you, sure enough, because you're not what
you ought to be in yourself. Oh, preacher, I'm so weak, I'm
so sinful. And your conscience says, that's
exactly right. The only thing that will quiet
a guilty conscience is absolute perfection and righteousness.
That's all. If you can give your conscience,
if your conscience is made aware of perfection and righteousness,
it will be quiet. Where is perfection and righteousness
to be found? In the Lord our righteousness. When we, by faith, look to Christ
Jesus alone, and we say, not me, but Him. Not my works, but
His work. Not my faithfulness, but His
faithfulness. When we put all of our eggs in
one basket and say, Jesus Christ is all, your conscience will
be quiet. Because the conscience demands
and will not be satisfied with anything less than perfection. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you have perfection. Perfection. But you look away
from Him, and you start looking within.
Well, I'm looking for some evidences. I'm looking for some fruit. You're going to be in trouble.
Your conscience, it's going to start barking like a hound dog.
It's not going to be happy at all. Because it can only be satisfied,
it can only be happy, it can only be pacified with perfection,
absolute perfection. That's Christ Jesus the Lord. Our Lord gives us liberty from
a troubled conscience. He gives us liberty, liberty
to approach the throne of grace. We can come to the throne of
grace with boldness. And He gives us a liberty even
from that last enemy we're going to have to face. Death. We've got to face it. We've got to face it. I visited Thursday with Brother
Eccles at the hospital. Had a really good visit with
him. He had his daughter and son-in-law were there and a social
worker came by God's appointment and said, could we, she said,
I want to speak to y'all for a little bit and so they left
the room. So there's nobody remaining but just Jim and me and we had
the sweetest talk. Just a blessed, blessed visit. He said, I'm not afraid to die. I'm ready. I'm ready. He said, in fact,
I wish you'd pray that God would just take me home. He said, I
want to see the Savior. He said, I want to be up there
every day. Every day I want to be with the
Lord. And I said, Jim, in heaven is just one eternal day. And
there is no night there. He said, oh, won't it be wonderful
there? I said, absolutely. Absolutely. You see our Lord, He even delivers
us, He saves us from death itself. Death for believer, it's falling
asleep. fallen asleep. And you won't
lose any consciousness either. Because you will be every child
of God, every chosen vessel of mercy, every redeemed sinner,
every quickened sinner, every regenerated sinner, every believing
sinner. When you die, when the Lord says,
you come to me now, you'll be absent from the body and present
with the Lord. Got nothing to fear. Well, who's
going to do all this for us? Christ Jesus. That's what He
says. And it very well may have been
some of the remnant, according to the election of grace, said
to Isaiah, but Isaiah, how's all this going to come to pass?
All these promises of God? Isaiah said, when He comes, He'll
take care of everything. He's Jehovah Jireh. The Lord
will provide and He'll be with us all the way to the end. Isaiah says, For unto us a child
is born. Here's the incarnation and virgin
birth of our Savior. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon
His shoulder. Here's His blessed humanity,
for unto us a child is born. Behold the humiliation of our
Savior. Though He comes as a king to
reign forever, He's born into this world as a little child. And in His state of humility,
He's still holding up the world by the power of His will. And
yet, like any other baby, he had to be cared for by his mother,
fed by his mother. He needed the care of her hands
like any other baby. He needed the warmth of the blankets
that wrapped around him. No wonder we read in 1 Timothy
chapter 3, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. This is a great mystery. It's
beyond our comprehension. That little infant of the manger,
born of a virgin, When Mary looked down at that infant in her arms,
she was looking into the face of God Almighty. And we know
that because a little later in Luke chapter 2, Simeon, he's
waiting for Him. He's waiting for Him and he looked
at the Lord Jesus when Mary and Joseph brought Him in to do according
to the law of God. He said, Lord, now let us thy
servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen. He didn't
say mine eyes have seen a little baby. He didn't say mine eyes
have seen an helpless infant. He said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. Thy salvation. Our Lord, in his
humanity, in his humanity, he was a real man. He is a real
man, touched with the feelings of our infirmities like other
men. Subject to weakness, get tired, weariness. When He was out with His disciples
going across the Sea of Galilee, they said when the storm came
up, they said, where is the Master? And somebody said, He is in the
back of the boat asleep. Asleep? Wait a minute, he that
keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps! Where is he? He's back there asleep. Great
is the mystery of godliness. That's the reality of his humanity. And hungry, he had to eat. Thirsty, he had to drink. And
yet all along, He's still God over all, blessed forever. He's
the man Christ Jesus. Well, why did He become a man?
Because only a man can suffer, bleed, and die and pay the penalty
for our sin. A man, a representative man got
us in this mess to begin with. It will take another representative
man to get us out of it, but not just any man. He's got to
be the God-man. The God-man. He's the gift of God's love to
His people. But He's not just the child that's
born, He's the Son that's given. He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of God. God in the flesh. There's the creator. There's
the sustainer of all things. There's the God of divine predestination. There's the God of election.
There is our surety. There is our covenant head. Who
stood for us in old eternity. Who has always borne responsibility
for the salvation of His people. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there He is. There He is. Look on that infant and see the
God of eternity. Too big for me. This is too great
for me. Oh, how thrilling. Oh, how thrilling. You see the world. The world. They see a little infant of Bethlehem's
manger and they say, isn't that cute? and we'll just put us a
manger scene out front of a church building. And we'll have him
as a little baby out there. And there are the shepherds and
there are the wise men. Of course, in the Bible, the
wise men weren't there. They weren't there. They didn't
see him until many months later. But they have their manger scenes. They have their living manger
scenes with people playing the role of the shepherds and they'll
have real animals there and have a little baby and they'll have
floats in the parade about baby Jesus. They don't know who He
is. He's the Savior of sinners. And He doesn't need your sympathy.
He doesn't need you to feel sorry for Him because He's the Lord
of glory. When He is on His way to the
cross, there's some women along the way crying. They're upset. And He looked over at them and
said, don't you weep for me. You weep for yourselves. You
weep for your children in light of what's going to happen to
y'all. But don't you weep for me. Everything that happened
to him happened according to his own eternal purpose. From his birth to his death. And we rejoice that he was born
into this world, but his birth did not save us. His death saved
us. His blood saved us. His sacrifice
saved us. He's the Savior of sinners by
His sacrificial atoning death on the cross. That's how He satisfied
God's justice. That's how He met all the claims
of the law and satisfied every one of them. This baby is God. He's God over all, blessed forever. And Isaiah says, the government
shall be upon his shoulder. The government of all providence
is on his shoulders. Who can handle that? Whose shoulders
are broad enough to take care of all of the government of divine
predestination? All of the bringing to pass of
God's eternal purpose? Whose shoulders are broad enough
for that? The God-man, He's capable of
doing it. He'll handle it. He's taking
care of everything. The government of all providence,
the government of the world, the government of grace, The
government of His church and kingdom has all been given over
to Him as a reward for His successful work of redemption. And then
look at His character. And His name shall be called,
this One who will bring all of these promises to fruition. His name shall be called Wonderful. He is wonderful in His person.
He is wonderful in His works. He is wonderful in His accomplishments. He is wonderful in His grace.
He is wonderful in His love. He is wonderful. He is always
wonderful. And He is the Counselor. He stood
as our Counselor in the covenant of grace. He gives counsel by
His Spirit through His Word to His people in this world. And he's our counselor at the
bar of God's justice. We have an advocate. We have
a counselor. We have a lawyer. Who is he? Jesus Christ the righteous. He's our counselor. And he's
the mighty God. He's the mighty God, the mighty
one. Almighty. Nothing is impossible
with Him. He is almighty to save. He who
created all things, sustains all things, is directing all
things to its appointed end, and He is able to save to the
uttermost all that come unto God by Him. He is the mighty
God. He was mighty to accomplish redemption. He was mighty to accomplish salvation. And He was mighty to bring in
righteousness for all of us. And He is the everlasting Father.
No, Isaiah is not confused about the three persons of the Gadiad.
He is not confused about the doctrine of the Trinity. He writes
by divine inspiration. And His words are precisely accurate. He is the everlasting Father
because He is the Father of a spiritual seed of His offspring. Those to whom He will give life
and light. We are born of His Spirit. We
have His life. We wear His name. We are under
His care. We live upon His provisions. We possess His inheritance. He's
our Father and He's the Prince of Peace. He made our peace by
the blood of His cross. And in verse 7, Isaiah, he sets
forth his exaltation. 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 to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. This is His glorious
exaltation. Isaiah is talking about the sovereign
rule of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace. Him being
the exalted King and Governor of the universe. God said, I've
set my King upon my holy hill. That's what God said. Well, what is the guarantee that
all this is going to come to pass? What's the infallible security
of God's eternal purpose of all of this being fulfilled? Look
at the last statement. Verse 7, the zeal of the Lord
of hosts will perform this. God Himself, the everlasting,
omnipotent, sovereign God of the universe, He has undertaken
to perform all of these things and His purpose can't be hindered,
can't be frustrated, can't be thwarted. They cannot fail. God's zeal for His own glory
will perform it. And God's zeal for the good of
His people will perform it. These things, they come to pass
because God Himself purposed that they'd come to pass through
our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. Let's sing the song and then
I'm going to tell you a little bit about our trip to Hawaii.
But let's sing this song first.