Hope your Bible's with me to
Luke chapter 1 for our scripture reading. Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 verse 26. And in the sixth month, the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the
house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored,
graciously accepted, much graced. The Lord is with thee. Blessed
art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the
sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing
shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid
of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed
from her. Our most blessed, blessed God
and Father of our Savior, our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we come with Peace in
our hearts, joy in our hearts, and thanksgiving in our hearts
for this blessed, blessed son of God who came into this world
to save sinners, people with no abilities, no power, no strength
to save themselves, but you sent him to save us, save us from
our sin, give us his righteousness, and establish our goings, meet
the needs of our hearts and our souls. And oh Lord, we are so
blessed to have such a hope that we have, that when our Lord Jesus
appears in his glory, we shall also appear with him. And Lord,
as we see him as he is, we shall also be just like him. Oh what
a blessed hope we have. What a glorious expectation. What a blessed, blessed future
we have. That this world is not our home.
This world and all that's in it is just vanity and vanishing
away. But oh Lord Jesus we have a living
reality. A salvation that's real. A savior
we see and know. A God that though he is invisible
Lord we are able to see. See him by faith and we come
unto you knowing that you are a rewarder of them that diligently
seek you. And oh Father we ask that you
would be pleased to come down and be among us today. Oh come
down in our midst. Come down in power and liberty
and freedom in the preaching and in the hearing. and in the
salvation of sinners. Bring your sheep to yourself.
Have mercy upon those that are lost. Have mercy upon our children,
our grandchildren, lost husbands, lost wives. We ask these things
in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Now if you will, Open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9. It says here in verse 6, Isaiah
9, 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name, his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of
his government and peace there shall be no end, and upon the
throne of David, upon his kingdom, to order and to establish it
with judgment and justice from henceforth forever, the zeal
of the Lord of hosts will perform this. It talks about His name
shall be called, and when we read this verse, Isaiah 9, 6,
we remember and are reminded of what Paul said when he said,
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in
the world, and received up into glory. God was manifest in the
flesh. And our Lord's person is so,
so full, so glorious, incomprehensible in all of the
ways that he is. The prophet here, Isaiah, calls
him in the same breath, calls him a child and a counselor. Calls him the son and an everlasting
father. Says he's born and yet he's everlasting. Says he's a child and yet the
mighty God. An infant born and yet a son
that's given in both of them is infinite. He's called the
mighty conqueror and yet the prince of peace. And when you read something like
this, it reminds me, I don't know about you, but it makes
me think how little, how little I know about my Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there's so much to learn,
so much to see. And oh, to think about Him, to
consider Him, to meditate on Him, to study Him, and understand
anything about our Lord's person is a lifetime of doing. And about
the time we think we learned something, God will open up something
else. Just makes us stand in wonder, makes us stand in awe,
makes our hearts full of joy and peace. and yet at the same
time puts us in the dust because of his glory. He's in our midst,
our Lord Jesus Christ comes in our midst and he speaks to us
and we see by faith, yet there is in his person, in his person,
there's such a height and a depth and a breadth and a length that
the human intellect cannot possibly ever comprehend. No wonder great
is the mystery of godliness. And the mystery, Paul said this
is a mystery. Christ in you, the hope of glory. The mystery of wisdom that's
been hid for generations made known. The mystery of our Lord's
person is so deep that he must reveal himself, make himself
known to us, or we would never ever know him or anything about
him. That's what the same prophet
said in another place. In Isaiah 53 he says there is
no beauty about him that we should desire him. No beauty at all. And I know this that men can
research all they want to. or they can reason all they want
to. Christ cannot be known, the Lord
Jesus cannot be known by research or by reasoning. He asked his
disciples one day, he said, who do men say that I, the Son of
Man, am? They talked about him. Everywhere
they talked about him. The Pharisees talked about him.
Sadducees talked about him. Common people talked about him.
They often asked, they said, does the Pharisees indeed know
that this is the Christ? But he asked his disciples one
day, he said, Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? They
said, Well, some say you're Jeremiah. It has to be Jeremiah because
he's a man of sorrow and of grief. Others said, Well, he must be
Elijah. He's got such power. He has to
be one of the prophets. Then he turned to them and said,
But who do you? I hear what they're saying about
me out here, but who do you say that I am? Old Simon Peter says,
Thou art the Christ. Thou art the Son of God. And
you know what our Lord said to him? Said, Simon, you are so
blessed of my Father, so blessed of God, flesh and blood did not
make you know that. But my Father, which is in heaven,
He made you understand that, made you know who I am. Huh? And oh, the apostle Paul said,
when it pleased God, who called me from my mother's womb, saved
me by his grace to do what? To reveal his son. Huh? Oh, my. Keep Isaiah and look
in John 14 with me just a moment. This is what I'm trying to say. It's said, you know, that our
Lord Jesus Christ have the keys of David. And the keys of David,
that means he opens. He said he'll open and no man
can shut and he'll shut and no man can open. So, I mean, he's
the one that opens up our hearts, opens up our minds, and if he
opens it, nobody can shut it. But if he shuts it, there ain't
nobody, no preacher, no scripture, no nothing that can open it. So we in his hands, bless his
holy name. I'm grateful. Oh, I'm so grateful
for that. Look what he said in Isaiah.
I mean, excuse me, John 14 here. Our Lord Jesus Christ says down
here in verse 20, at that day, you shall know that I am in my
father and you're in me and I'm in you. And he that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him. Now here's a question. Judas
saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt
manifest thyself unto us, but not unto the world? How are we
gonna know you, and the world not? How you gonna separate yourself
from everybody else and just make us to know who you are? I know how he does it. I know
exactly how he does it. He does it by his will, his pleasure,
his power, his grace, his love, his mercy. And he says, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Ain't that
what it says? And all bless his name. Now I'll
tell you what, our Lord Jesus Christ is the schoolmaster and
you know the lesson he teaches? Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the lock and the key and he has to be the one to put the
key in the lock and open it up. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
riddle and he's the answer. He is the way and he has to guide
us to that way and in that way. He's the one to whom we look
and yet we cannot see him unless he gives us sight and gives us
the ability. So may we, by God's blessed grace,
take Mary's position in our poor little old lives, take Mary's
position and sit at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ and
learn of him. And as our Lord Jesus Christ
says, you come unto me and take my yoke upon you. And I tell
you what, when you take it on you, you'll learn of me. Come
and learn of me. Now let's go through this verse
just a line upon line and a precept upon precept here in Isaiah 9.6.
Look what it says here. He said, For unto us a child
is born, A child is born. Now that's what I just read to
you over in Luke chapter 2, or chapter 1. Unto us a child is
born. But don't marry. He said, you're
going to have a child. You're going to have a son. And I tell
you, Isaiah, right over here in Isaiah 7, 14, right back to
your left, look what it says. Therefore the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. What kind of sign are you going
to give us, Lord? Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son
and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us. What happens here is the child
is born, eternity breaks into time. How does he do it? Through
the womb of a virgin. And he took upon himself the
likeness, not sinful flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh. He
was in a body like ours. God prepared him a body. And
in that body, and in that heart, and in that soul, and in that
mind, and in everything he did, sinless perfection from the days
born to the day. And he still is what he was.
He always is. And what he is, he'll always
be. The Godhead, we understand that the Godhead can't be born,
for it's eternal. And that's why Paul said, great
is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the
flesh. And he called him a child is
born, a child, yet an infant. And you think about our Lord
Jesus Christ, a child, an infant, in need of a mother, sucking
at his mother's breast, the need of a father to instruct him and
to teach him, to father and mother to love him and take care of
him and cherish him and bathe him and do all the things that
parents do for a child. That this infant here, this infant,
this child that's born had to be taught, had to be fed, had
to be clothed, and he cried. And he who cried hears now hears
our cries. See him helpless as an infant
who is now our help in our helplessness? See him in need as a child who
now meets all of our needs as his children? Oh, a child is
born. Look what else it says. And a
son is given. And this is talking, that was
his humanity, a child is born. That's his humanity, his human
nature. And then he said a son is given. That's his divine nature. That's the nature of God. A son is given. Who's the son?
He's the eternal son. Always was the son of God. who
is the Son of God in eternity, before God ever put a star in
the skies, He was the Son of God. And oh, beloved, and He
says, God so loved the world that He gave, who? His only begotten
Son. And you see God's wondrous grace
here, that He would give His own Son? And you see the Son's
wondrous grace, that He came? That He came? God gave Him, but
that He came. And oh, what was this son that
was given? What was he given for? Well,
he is given to be our Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
And what will he do? He shall save his people from
their sin. That's what Gary wrote in, as
the song is, he wrote in the bulletin this morning. A successful
Savior. If Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners, I'll guarantee you by the Word of God and by
the name of our Savior that He'll save every sinner that He came
into this world to save. There'll be not one sinner, not
one. You see, the problem is you can't
find one of them anymore. The only people you can find
that are sinners is people that's already been saved. And the minute
a man becomes a sinner, he's saved. That's exactly right. Huh? Oh, I committed lots of sins
and I lived awful for years. But as one day I actually became
a sinner. One day I actually became a sinner
with no merit, no worth, no ability, no power. with nothing, nothing
to bring to God but my wretchedness, my misery, my sinfulness, my
rebellion, not just my sins, but I had to bring me with all
my darkness and loathsomeness and misery. And all I could come
and ask for was mercy. Couldn't ask for nothing else.
And if he didn't give me mercy, I'd have stayed just like I was.
No, I couldn't change myself. So he was given to be a Savior. And if he is given to be a Savior,
you reckon Brad, he'll be a Savior? And all He was given to be our
substitute. That's why John said, Behold
the Lamb of God. Who gave the Lamb of God? God
sold Abraham. My Son, God Himself will provide
a Lamb. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, was
God's Lamb. That lamb that was spotless,
without blemish, without anything wrong with him examined for 33
and a half years. And when it come time for him
to be offered, God himself said, I accept him in the room instead
of my people. He lived our life. that we couldn't live. Died our
death that we couldn't die. Bore our sins that we couldn't
bear. Justice was satisfied with him
and he bore the wrath of God and God's wrath and justice will
never ever fall on his people because Christ was our substitute
given for that purpose. He said, for this hour I came
into this world He said, except a corn of wheat fall in the ground
and die, it abides alone. But if it dies, oh, the fruit
is going to come from that. Oh, listen. And he came to be
our sacrifice. We got to have a sacrifice. We
got to have something that God will accept. and God will accept
only what he himself provides. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I came, made my soul an offering for sin. He was the sacrifice for our
sin and put away all our sin once in the end of the world. And oh, listen, he came He came,
He was given to be our righteousness. We gotta have a righteousness
acceptable to God. Where we gonna get that at? Oh, God said I made Him to be
sinned. Who knew no sin? That we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. I have a righteousness right
now, and if you're a believer and Christ died for you and saved
you by His grace, we have a righteousness that when we get to heaven, it
will not change at all than the one we have right now. What we
have right now is the same righteousness we'll enter into glory with. You know why? It's the righteousness
of God. Christ is our righteousness.
Huh? And He's our justification. He
was the Lamb slain from the fountain. What's justification mean? That
means that God, we're justified in God's sight and God looks
at us and absolutely cannot find anything wrong with us to condemn
us in any way. Why? Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation. To who? Them that are in Christ
Jesus. And I'll tell you why else he
was given for us. Because God loved us. He said, I loved you
with an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness
and the cords of a man. I'm going to draw you. I'm going
to draw you. And he was given because Christ
loved us, having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved
them to the end. And you noticed it said this
son was given Given. Didn't say he was deserved. Didn't
say we deserved him. And I'll tell you why he was
given. Because God will only accept what he himself provides. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. And then it says, For unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given. You notice how it said
unto us and unto us? You know who us is, unto us?
Sinners, yeah. Unto us, us sinners, us who are
helpless, us who has no power, us who has no ability, us who
sit in such darkness, such darkness. Look what it says in verse 2
here of chapter 9. It says, the people that walked
in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them the light shines. Oh my, God commendeth his love
toward us in that while we were yet When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. And He was the just for the unjust,
the innocent for the guilty, that He might bring us to God. So unto us, I tell you who else
it was us, unto us who were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Unto us, God's elect. Unto us,
God's predestinated. Unto us, who were loved before
the world ever began. Unto us, who were like that infant
cast out in the field, polluted in our own blood. Unto us, when
he passed by, he said, unto thee I say, unto thee I say, live,
and we lived. Now look what else it says now.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And look
down there, and his name, his name shall be called. His name, and he's got five names
here, and it's just one name. It's that his name. His name, all these things are
his name. Five things, and that's his name,
Gary. It's not five different names,
it's one name. And I'll tell you something,
God his father never gave him a name that he didn't deserve.
Huh? Oh my, God never gave him a name
he didn't deserve. Thou gave him a name that's above
every name, didn't he? But look what he lives, and I'll
tell you something else, he lives up to his name. Me and you don't
let you know. I've heard preachers say, they
tell their children, said, don't you forget whose child you are.
Well, they can't forget. My son and daughter can't forget
what child they are. And I can't forget they're my
son and daughter. They ain't too much like me. But I tell you what, our Lord
Jesus Christ, he lives up to his name. And oh, it's called his name.
Look what he calls him. His name should be called Wonderful.
Wonderful. You know what that word Wonderful
means? I know one thing He is, He's wonderful to me. We sing
that little chorus, Wonderful, wonderful to me. And that's what
it is. Wonderful also means miracle.
It means a marvel. Ain't our Lord Jesus Christ wonderful? You consider that He's eternal. He which was, which is, and which
is to come. That is wonderful. He is wonderful
in His life. He said, Which of you convinces
me of sin? Every step that He took, every
word that He uttered, every deed that He did, every word that
He said, He is wonderful in all of His deeds. He is wonderful
in His words. He says, The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit in their life. And oh my! Wonderful in his love. Wonderful that he would love
us. Have you ever wondered that he'd
love you? That he would even look in your
direction? That he would have anything at
all to do with you? Or me? And oh my, he's wonderful
in his humility. Wonderful in his humility. Nobody
was humble as our Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody ever in this eternal world,
in this world that God created from nothing and upholds it by
the word of His power through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody
did God ever say, I'm well pleased in Him. But He said that about
His Son. He said that about His Son. And
oh how wonderful he is in his wisdom. Oh the wisdom that our
Lord Jesus Christ has. And wonderful in his death. Oh his death and what his death
accomplished. And I tell you what's wonderful
of all is that he should die at all. He certainly didn't die
for himself. He didn't die for anything he
did. They charged him with being a criminal. They charged him
as being a blasphemer. They charged him as having a
devil. They charged him as something that they even hired people to
lie on him. So when he died, he died willingly. He died willingly. And look what
else it says about him. His name shall be called Wonderful.
Oh my. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. What a wonderful Savior
to me. Huh? What a wonderful Savior. Then
it says not only is He wonderful, but counselor. Counselor. Now let me say something right
here. Romans chapter 11, that's this
question. Who has ever been God's counselor?
Whoever gave to God and God had to give it back to him. Well,
I'm going to tell you there's only one person that could be
God's counselor. Someone as eternal as he is,
someone as wise as he is, someone who knows all of his decree and
knows everything there is to know that God knows. That's the
only one could be his counselor. He had to be equal with his father.
Now this is, you think about this. The son, the son knows
everything his father knows, wills everything his father wills, Now, I don't, these kids don't know what their
father knows, but our Lord Jesus Christ knows everything his father
knows. I don't know how to explain that, but that's just the way
it is, ain't it? That's why we call it, oh, it's so wonderful.
And oh, he was the counselor of God, and there was an eternal
counsel. between the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. And all that the Godhead purposed
to do and everything God did, he did on purpose. And he purposed
to do it through the Lord Jesus Christ and he's the wonderful
counselor in it. There was no creature that was
ever allowed or ever needed by God in His commitments, in His
thoughts, in His words, in His deeds, nobody but our Lord Jesus
Christ was. And I tell you, He is the counselor
in creation for by Him all things were created. He's before all
things and by Him all things consist. He's the wisdom of God
and the counselor of God in providence. He says here the government's
gonna be on his shoulder. That means that he's calling
all the shots in this world. I don't like what's going on
in this world. I don't like what's going on in this world a bit
as far as my flesh is concerned. I don't like the political situation
the way it is. I don't like the government the
way it is. I don't like taxes the way they
are. There's a thousand things I could
say about it all, but I know one thing. They may think they're
running this outfit, but I know somebody else it is. He's the
counselor, and he's sitting on his throne, and the government's
on his shoulder, and he puts people in power, and he puts
them back down. He raises up men and he sets
them down. He gives them life and he takes
them away. He gives us Christ and then he
takes us to glory. Huh? Oh, that's what I'm talking
about. It's providence, everything that
goes on in this world. That's why I've told you this
before. When you get up of a morning, the first thing you need to do
after you drank your coffee and got sense enough to know what
you're doing, first thing you need to do is say, Lord, this
is your day. It's your day. You give it to
me, it seems good in your sight. If it brings bad news, it can't be bad because all things
work together for good. I'm telling you. Maybe a sentence of death from
a doctor says you got six months to go. You say, that ain't good
news. It is if you're a believer. That
means six months you're going to go be with the Lord. That's
what it means. I have to go to the dermatologist
all the time. I had a bad melanoma one time. They had to cut a great
big bunch out of my back. And if I ever go and she tells
me I got another big one, she says, we were going to cut that.
I'm going to say, no, you ain't. I said, if that's the way the Lord wants
to take me to glory, I'm going. You know, I tell you, that's
why, you know why? God runs this place. Oh my. And I tell you what, he's the
counsel of peace. And I'll tell you something else
about him. Not only is he living in the council halls of eternity
with the Father and has made this wonderful covenant of peace
and grace, but he's our counselor, our counselor. Do you want Christ
to be your counselor? Oh, we go to his word and see
what he has to say, what his will is, what his word is about
his wisdom. He's our guide. He's our way. He's our wisdom. The Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth
me beside the still water. He makes me lie down in green
pastures. And I'll tell you something that
he counsels us to do. I tell you something he counsels
us to do. He counsels us to forgive. He counsels us to love. Love one another. To forgive. To forbear. Counsels us to be humble. Counsels
us to be generous. Counsels us to be giving. Counsels
us to trust him. Trust his counsel. Trust his
words. He counsels us to cast all our
cares upon him because he cares for us. He counsels us to wait
upon him and to find rest for our souls in our Lord Jesus Christ. And he counsels us about the
life to come. He said, I let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house, there's many man. If it were
not so, I wouldn't have told you that. But I go to prepare
a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am,
there you may be also. Father, I will that they whom
thy has given me be with me, that they may behold my glory. Oh my. Now look what else it
says about him. Wonderful counselor and the mighty
God. The mighty God. He is God manifested in the flesh.
He is the great I am. You know two times they pick
up stones to stone him. And both of them when he says
I am. They said he's being a man makes himself to be God. They
picked up stones to stone him. They understood clearly who he
claimed to be. And he has seven, seven I am's
that he called himself in the scriptures. Seven I am's. He
said before Abraham was, I am. Moses wrote of me, you know who
was in that burning bush talking to Moses? The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, his words and his work
testified to his Godhead. And our blessed Savior didn't
just come into existence when he was born in Bethlehem, nor
did he cease to exist when he died on the cross. He was the
mighty God when he came. He was the mighty God while he's
here. He's the mighty God right now. And he says, thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. He's able to save. or to damn,
he's able to uphold or to bring down. He's the express image
and the brightness of God's glory. And after he by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high and
upholding this world by the word of his power. Now he's not God
humanized, like Jehovah's Witnesses think He is, for He's not man-deified. He is God and man in one blessed
person. And God alone is worthy to be
worshiped, and we worship Him because He's the mighty God. And, oh, listen to what else
they said. This is going to be a hard one to explain. Look what
it says, the mighty God, the everlasting Father. The everlasting
Father. Now what in the world can he,
how can he be the everlasting father when he himself prayed
to his father? He says the father sent me. How
can he be the everlasting father when there ain't but one father
in the Godhead? Huh? He said he prayed to the father.
He's our advocate with the father. But how then is he our everlasting
father? Well, I'll tell you how. I'm
going to try to explain it the best I can. in respect to God's elect,
His chosen people. You see, it's by Him that we're
begotten again. Is that not right? It says being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, His seed remains in us. This is one
of those mysteries that God teaches us. We were in the loins of our
Lord Jesus Christ as His children from eternity. And what the Holy Spirit does
is he takes Christ, God's blessed son, and he plants his seed in
us. We're born of corruptible seed,
sinful seed. But when we're born again, that
incorruptible seed, the word of God, Christ, who is the living
word, is implanted in our heart and life generates from it. Ain't that right? We cannot sin.
Why? Because His seed remaineth in us. Is that not right? And
He's the author and finisher of our faith. And I'll tell you
another reason why He's our everlasting Father, because He cannot die
and will never leave us fatherless. And not only that, but He saves
us from everlasting to everlasting. And when it calls him the everlasting
father, that means he's the father of eternity. He's the author,
author of eternity. He's the author of eternal life.
And he clothes us, Daniel called it an everlasting righteousness. And he gives us everlasting forgiveness,
everlasting justification. He's the father of all that is
ours. and everything that we get comes
by him, through him, and because of him. Is that not right? And
look what else it says about him. His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.
And look what else it says, the Prince of Peace. He's a prince and a king by birth.
Where is he that's born king of the Jews? He is exalted to
be a prince and a savior. He is Prince by office. He is
Prince by power. He's Prince by authority. And
I'll tell you why he's called the Prince of Peace. Because
God said, peace on earth. Now, there's not peace on earth.
All these people, you know, say, what would you have, you know,
they ask all these people in these beauty contests, what would you like
to have? Said, I'd love to see peace on earth. It ain't gonna
happen. But when he said there'd be peace
on earth, that means that Christ was going to be the one to bring
peace to people on this earth. And he's the one who established
peace. He brought peace through the
blood of the everlasting covenant. He made peace through his own
blood. And he brought peace, he gives
peace, and he brings peace between God and man. He used to be a
preacher. He used to say all the time.
He says, make your peace sure with God. I couldn't make
peace with God. But God could certainly make
peace. It would make peace in my heart. And that's what Christ
did. He made peace. How? Through the
blood of His cross. He slew the enmity that I had
in my heart and He took away the wrath of God. and he reconciled
me and God together, brought us together, who had enmity before. And on he gives peace and sustains
peace, the kingdom of God not in meat and drink, but righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And let me show you this and
then I'll be done. Again it says, for unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and I love this right here, and the government,
Notice what it says here, now shall be upon his shoulder. Not
shoulders, shoulder. He got the government on one
shoulder, you know what he's got on the other shoulder? His sheep. When he finds his sheep, he lays
them on his shoulder. He got his sheep on this shoulder,
got the government on this shoulder, and that gives you some idea
of how great and glorious our Lord Jesus Christ is. And he must reign, he must reign. And oh, you know how he rules?
He rules in wisdom, rules in love, rules in grace, rules in
power, rules in prudence, and I'll tell you something else,
I'm willing for him to be my government. Yes, yes, yes, go
ahead and rule over me. Be my master, be my Lord, be
all that you are to me. Be all that you are to me. And
look what it says there in verse seven and up, the increase of
his government's gonna get greater and greater. There'll never be
no end, there'll be no peace, and there's no end to it. God's
ordered it. And oh, listen, and it says,
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this thing. God's
gonna cause this to work. He gonna perform it. Ain't He? And there's only one thing I
wanna know. Do you know Him? Do you know Him? Do you know Him? Not some things
about Him. But do you know Him? Do you know
Him? And do you trust Him? Our blessed, blessed Savior,
oh, our gracious, eternal God. Oh, Lord, whatever we say about
you, we feel so bad. We can never, ever think of you
high enough, exalt you high enough, speak of you in terms that's
worthy of your blessed person. But Lord, because we can't do
it, we're not going to stop trying. We're going to keep exalting
You and speaking of You and talking of You and submitting ourselves
to You and standing in wonder before You. And oh, blessed be
Your name, who is like unto Thee in glory, power, and majesty.
Oh, Lord Jesus, make Yourself known here. Make Yourself known. We ask these things in Your own
holy name. Amen. What is that, 256? Is that the
one that's a wonderful Savior's Jesus, our Lord? Is that it? 258. Let's stand and sing. Then you'll be at liberty to
go. We're going to have lunch today after service. Y'all be
sure and stay. Stay for the meal. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see.