Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm preaching from the book of Isaiah, the
prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. And today I'm going to be looking
at chapter nine, mainly verses six and seven. Isaiah nine, verse
six and seven, if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles.
The title of the message is The Government of God's Grace. The
Government of God's Grace. The book of Isaiah is fraught
with the gospel, the basic gospel of Christ. I've told you before
how Isaiah prophesied in the southern kingdom of Judah. He
mainly stayed around Jerusalem. You might say he was a city prophet.
His contemporary, Hosea, who was another type of prophet, but still preach the gospel.
But he wasn't a city guy like Isaiah. And then there's the
prophet Amos who was a farmer. But Isaiah, he was a city prophet. He mainly prophesied around Jerusalem.
And I preached last week on how Isaiah had come to know the Lord
through a vision that God gave him of the gospel. how holiness
and sin are all brought together in a just way by salvation, by
God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, at the time,
Isaiah prophesied around 700, 750 years before Christ actually
came into the world in his first advent. And much of the prophets,
and you could say this about all the prophets, much of their
prophecy was pronouncing God's judgment against a disobedient
people, both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom
of Judah. And one of the things that Isaiah
dealt with in his book is the coming destruction of the northern
kingdom by the Assyrian empire and how that this was God's judgment
against their sin. But now he spoke judgments against
the southern kingdom too of Judah, the southern kingdom of Judah.
But now most of his judgments against, well, his prophecies
against the northern kingdom by the Assyrian Empire, that
was coming soon, even in Isaiah's lifetime. You know, Isaiah, he
prophesied through the reign of, I think, four kings. And the Assyrian Empire destroyed
the northern kingdom and dispersed them in Isaiah's time. The prophecy of God's judgment
against the southern kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem was coming
later, a hundred or so years later, during the end of the
prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah. But all through their prophecies,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and you could say this about all of them, all
through their prophecies, as they were pronouncing judgments
upon Israel, both kingdoms, for their sinfulness, they always
had a positive note, and it was basically a two-fold message,
the positive. Number one, that God was going
to keep this nation intact in some way, especially the southern
kingdom, because the southern kingdom was made up of the tribe
of Judah, the kingly tribe, and the tribe of Benjamin, God was
going to keep that nation together until the time of the Messiah. So that when they suffered punishments,
when they suffered the punishment of their crops failing, the rain
stopping, or when they were conquered. Later on, the southern kingdom
was conquered and brought into Babylon to be captives. Well, God wasn't gonna leave
him there. He was gonna bring him back because he had a purpose
for that people, the people of Judah, and that was to bring
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world, humanly speaking,
through that tribe, the kingly tribe. You remember back in Jacob's
prophecy on his deathbed, I believe it's Genesis 49. He told him,
when he was blessing his sons, and when he came to Judah, his
son Judah, he said, the scepter will not depart from Judah until
Shiloh come. And Shiloh there is Christ, it's
peace. Peace between God and his people. And so now, When
that was over, when the Messiah would come, then the southern
kingdom would be destroyed too, and it was destroyed in AD 70,
because it was then made clear that salvation was not just for
the Jews, but it was for God has an elect people, chosen people,
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And that's
what spiritual Israel is. And if you ever talk about that,
or you ever hear me talk about it, don't let anybody divert your mind from that fact
by saying, well, that's replacement theology, as if the church replaced
the nation Israel. The church did not replace the
nation Israel. I'll tell you what kind of theology
it is. It's fulfillment theology. Because what the nation Israel
represented was fulfilled in the church, the true church,
the New Testament church. Just like Christ is the fulfillment
of all the types and pictures of the old covenant, like for
example, the lambs that were slain, Christ didn't replace
them, Christ fulfilled what they pictured. The salvation was always
by the grace of God through the blood of the Lamb of God. So
understand that. Well, what would happen here
is in the midst of all these judgments, and all these commandments,
he would give a prophecy of the Messiah. And that's what Isaiah
chapter nine, our text is about. Look at verse six of Isaiah nine. This is where he says in verse
six, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulder. Now that's the government
of God's grace, the government of salvation, the government
of the church. And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. And then verse seven, it says,
of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no
end. He cannot be defeated. Upon the
throne of David, that's where he came through humanly speaking.
He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. And upon
his kingdom, listen to this now, to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever,
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Did you notice
in that passage, it's talking about salvation by the sovereign
grace of God through the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ to achieve success in the salvation of his people. And not one aspect of this is
conditioned on the people. It's all conditioned on Christ.
First of all, it's conditioned on the glory of his person. Who
is Jesus Christ? Well, he says here in verse six,
for unto us a child is born. What's that talking about? That's
talking about the humanity of Christ. His humanity, human nature, body
and soul, was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the
Holy Spirit without the aid of man, He was not like you and
me, we're born in sin, conceived in sin, born in sin, born in
trespasses and sin. We fell in Adam into the state
of sin and death and depravity and we're born into the world
in that state. That's why we need salvation.
That's why we need a righteousness we cannot produce. That's why
we need to be born again by the Spirit. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned. What's the natural man? That's
us as we're born into this world naturally. And in order to be
saved and to have fellowship with God, Christ must come and
work out a perfect righteousness in our stead. And that's what
God imputes to us. That's judgment and justice.
And we must be born again and brought to faith in Christ and
repentance of dead works. Well, unto us a child is born. Galatians 4.4 says, in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman. And in doing
that, Christ, his humanity was perfectly sinless, impeccable,
incapable of sin. So he is man, every bit man,
without sin. And that's why he was able to
do what he did in death. And then it says in verse six,
for unto us a child is born, but unto us a son is given. Now,
why does it say a son was born? Because the son there refers
to his deity as the son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
And as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, He has
no beginning and no end. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He wasn't born. He always has been, always is,
and always will be. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And that's why He was able to
save to the uttermost all sinners who come to God by Him. Because
He is God, manifest in the flesh. Now that's the type of person
and the only type of person who is capable and willing to do
what it takes, what it took to save God's people from their
sins. A mere man, even if he was a
perfect man, could not do it. And God alone could not do it
in the way that enables him to be just and justify. Because
in order to save His people from their sins, He had to die and
God cannot die. Now this person, Jesus Christ,
who is God, He did die. But we ascribe that to His humanity. It was an act of His entire person.
Now man cannot create and give life, but this person who is
man, he does create and give life. We attribute that to his
deity, but it's an act of his entire person. It's mind boggling,
I admit that. But that's who he is. Now it
says in verse six, the government shall be upon his shoulder. Well,
when, When Paul wrote Galatians chapter four, verse four, in
the fullness of the time, God sent forth his son made of a
woman, made under the law. That means that Christ being
the surety, the substitute and the redeemer of his people was
responsible to keep the law unto death, obey unto death. He obeyed
unto death, even the death of the cross. because all of the
conditions, all of the requirements, all of the stipulations of the
salvation of His people was put squarely upon His shoulders,
the government of God's grace. The establishment of it, the
origination of it, the establishment of it, the furtherance of it,
the prosperity of it is all upon Christ, not upon you or me. This notion that people have,
I'm sorry, I know people don't want to hear this, that Christ
did some of it, part of it, most of it, and the rest is up to
you, that is a lie. It's heresy. You see what I'm
saying? The government of salvation,
the government of the success of the church, it's upon Christ's
shoulder. None of it was put up on your
shoulder. None of it on my shoulder. If it were, it'd fail. Why? Because we're a sinful people.
And look at His name. Think about all that He is. His
name shall be called Wonderful, Amazing. What a person this is,
counselor. If you wanna know anything about
God, about salvation, look to Him. The mighty God, He's the
second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, the everlasting
Father. Now that's not saying that there's,
a lot of people go to this verse and say, well, see, there's no
Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. There He is, one God in three
persons, not three gods. And here it calls Christ the
everlasting Father. What it's talking about, not
that he is the same as God the Father in his person, but that
he is the originator, the progenitor of a people. The people of God
are called his offspring because he died, he suffered unto death. For example, over in Isaiah chapter
53, which is probably familiar to most of you, It says in verse
10 of Isaiah 53. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall see his offspring. He
shall prolong his days, prolonged days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. And that's what it's talking
about. He shall see his seed. That means everyone for whom
he died shall live. He died, he was buried, he arose
again. He established righteousness.
So he's the everlasting father in that sense. And then it says
he, in verse six of Isaiah nine, he's the prince of peace. Christ
established peace between God the father and his people, his
elect, his sheep. between God and His people by
the blood of His cross. He's the peacemaker. That verse
I quoted from Genesis, I think chapter 49, that the scepter
shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come, peace. He is the
peace of His people. God is reconciled to His people
on the basis of the righteousness of Christ. And His people are
reconciled to Him on that same basis. That's what Paul was teaching
back in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, when he started in verse 19,
God was in, all things are of God, and he said God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself. That's not everybody without
exception. You say, that's his elect. How do you know? Not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Not charging them with their
sin. And to whom is it that God does not charge sin? Romans chapter
eight says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. And it
goes on down there to say, for God made him sin to Christ who
knew no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's the gospel message whereby God uses to draw
his people unto himself by the power of the Spirit through Christ
to reconcile them to him. Be ye reconciled to God. God's
reconciled to his elect through the blood of Christ. Now we preach
the gospel to anybody who'll listen and say, be ye reconciled
to God by believing God. That's what faith is about, the
gift of faith. It brings you, who are by nature
an enemy of God, to be reconciled, to be at peace with God. And
that's what the Spirit does when he brings a sinner to salvation,
to faith, and to repentance. And so you're reconciled to God,
you're at peace with God now. That's the peace that passes
understanding. Well, look at verse seven of
Isaiah nine. Listen to this, listen to the
language of this. Of the increase of his government
and peace, no end. There shall be no end, no failure.
That's what that means. Christ didn't die for people
who end up perishing in hell, no. That's the vessels of wrath
that God fitted for that destruction, the non-elect. They're not sheep,
they're goats. You say, well, how can I know
that I'm a sheep and not a goat? Seek the Lord. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Are you even interested in these
things? If you're interested in it and
you seek them, truly, you'll find them. But here's what you'll
find out from the Bible, that if you do, God had already sought
you out. That's what Christ said. He's
going to seek his sheep. He laid his life down for the
sheep, and he's going to bring them all into the kingdom. He
comes into the world. It's like that hidden treasure. That hidden treasure, He's gonna
bring that treasure up. That's His people saved by His
grace through the blood of Christ. And there'll be no end, there'll
be no failure. And it says upon the throne of David, that's not
a literal throne in Jerusalem, the literal city. The throne of David speaks of
Christ who is in human speaking, humanly speaking, a descendant
of David. But David's throne was a picture
of salvation, of God's government, and upon his kingdom. David had
an earthly kingdom. David himself was a sinner saved
by grace. David's earthly kingdom failed.
But the spiritual kingdom of David, represented in Christ,
that'll never fail. And he says, look, to order it,
God's the one who orders this thing. He doesn't do a work and
then leave it to us to order it because we'd have it out of
order. We would mess it up. We would
fail. But he orders it. David said this on his deathbed. He said, God hath made a covenant
with me that is ordered in all things. And sure, the only way
that the salvation of God's people, well, I'll put it to you this
way. The only way that any sinner can be saved is if it's all on
Christ to order it. And he did order it. Bible says
he works all things after the counsel of his own will. If you're
a child of God, he ordered it before the foundation of the
world when he chose you and gave you to Christ. He ordered it
when he brought you into this world to be born as a fallen,
spiritually dead, sinful, depraved human being. He ordered it as
you walk through this earth in your darkness, not knowing God,
not knowing Christ. He ordered it when He brought
you into connection to hear the gospel communicated to you through
a human means, a preacher, writing or preaching, whatever. It pleased
the Lord through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. The gospel is the power. He ordered that. He brought you
under it. He ordered it when He gave you
life from the dead and brought you to faith in Christ. and repentance
of dead works. And if you're a child of God
walking in this world, waiting the time of your death where
you go to be with Him, or waiting the time of His return, whichever
comes first, He's ordering it all. He ordered it. And then
it says in verse seven, to order it and to establish it. The kingdom of God, The kingdom
of God's grace, the government of God's grace, is not established
by us when we believe. And really, that's what people
preach today. That's probably the most popular
message today. Christ did everything he could
do, now the rest is up to you. That's a lie. And if you believe
it, then you'll establish it. No, my friend, that's not the
way it is. He established it. Now, how did
he establish it? Not with your faith. Faith is
the gift of God. If he died for you, you will
come to faith in Christ by the power of the Spirit. It's a gift.
For by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
But how did he establish it? Look at it, with judgment and
justice, and with justice. Where did that take place? On
the cross. When God justly punished his
only begotten son, his perfect son, for the sins of his people
imputed to him, and Christ drank the cup of God's wrath dry. satisfied the justice of God.
That's what a propitiation is. Satisfaction. The debt is paid. Sins are put away. They cannot
be imputed to God's people. Righteousness is established.
God is just. to save his people from their
sins. He can be both a righteous judge and judge their sins and
punish their sins in Christ, and then be a merciful, faithful,
loving father to save them and bring them into fellowship with
him. And he says, from henceforth, even forever, it's not temporary. These folks who tell you, you
can be saved one day and lost the next, or you can lose it.
No, this is established with judgment and with justice from
henceforth, from that time forward, forever and even forever. And then he says, the zeal of
the Lord of hosts will perform this. Notice he didn't say you'll
perform this. Or you'll kick it into gear by
your believing or your responding. No. The zeal. What is zeal? It's fervency. God is fervent
for His own glory. And that's what He's talking
about. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts. What is He zealous for? He's zealous for His own glory.
He's zealous for the salvation of His people because that glorifies
Him. And He will perform it. He's
not going to leave it up to you or up to me. He's going to perform
it. Now, when you look at these things
and you see how glorious they are in God's plan and purpose,
what does it do for you? What does it do for me? Again,
as I said before, are you interested at all? in the things that glorify
God and that exalt Christ. If you're saved, here's things
that have to happen. If you're saved, God has to be
glorified in it. You can't be glorified, because
God will not share his glory. That he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. Secondly, Christ must be exalted. You can't be exalted. You say,
well, I did my part. That's exalting self. Well, Christ
died for this person. He went to hell, but I made the
right decision. I'm better than that person.
Oh, no, that exalts you. Christ must be exalted. The government's
on his shoulder. Sinners must be brought down
into the dust, the dust of humility. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Salvation is of the Lord. And
those who come to Christ, they see that government upon his
shoulder. And boy, don't we thank God for
it. Oh, don't you thank God that the government of God's grace
was on the shoulders of Christ. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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today and may the Lord be with you.