There are passages of scripture,
as you know, that just speak so much gospel truth to
us that you keep referring to them time and time again. And
this is one. I'm just going to deal with two
verses today out of the book of Isaiah chapter nine. This
whole passage is a prophecy. of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was to come. Isaiah prophesied around 700
years before Christ actually came into the world. And what
Isaiah does is he pronounces the judgment of God upon Israel. He preached in the southern kingdom
of Judah, Judah and Jerusalem. But he always brought in, under
these pronouncements of judgment, the hope of the gospel that was
to come in and by the person and work of Christ. And right
here in these verses, verses six and seven, is one of the
clearest prophecies of the whole gospel. I mean, these verses
really say it all. And it starts out with the glorious
person of Christ. Look at verse six. For unto us
a child is born, and unto us a son is given. That's speaking
of our Savior. When he says a child is born
and a son is given, he's making a distinction between the two
natures of Christ, two natures united in one person, both his
deity and his sinless humanity. The child born refers specifically
to his humanity. And this, I'll put in your lesson
here, this is one of the greatest mysteries that God reveals to
us. That's the incarnation of God
the Son because He is God, the second person of the Trinity,
but as the Bible tells us in Philippians 2, He took on Himself
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. We read in Galatians chapter
4 that in the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son
made of a woman. And we know way back in Genesis
chapter three and verse 15, he was prophesied to be the seed
of woman, the woman seed who would crush the head of the serpent,
which is Satan. So right then his person was
explained out and prophesied. And he is the gift of God to
his people. I love that passage in Romans
8 when it says, he who spared not his own son, how shall he
not with him freely give us all things? And it's in this capacity
as God manifests in the flesh. This child is born, speaks of
his sinless humanity, created for him by the Holy Spirit in
the womb of the Virgin. And you can look at the gospel
telling of his birth. For example, in Luke chapter
1 and in Matthew chapter 1, how the angel came to Mary and told
her that she was going to be with child. And she asked the
question, well how can I? I've not known a man. And he
said, the Holy Ghost is going to come upon you. And this, I
think in Luke chapter 1 verse 35 that I've got listed, that's
where the angel says that holy thing in you. And you might look
at that and you might think, well, that's kind of irreverent
to call Christ a thing. But it's not, because what it's
indicating is that he is the one and only. The one who is
God, the one who is man, and there's never been anyone like
him before, and there'll never be anyone like him afterward.
He's not just a man, even though he's called a man sometimes.
There's one mediator between God and men, and that is the
man Christ Jesus. He's called the Son of Man, because
he had a fleshly human body, but he wasn't born of man. He
was born of the Spirit of God through the woman. And so, as
we're born of men, fallen in Adam, born spiritually dead in
trespasses and sin, that's not the case with his humanity. His
humanity was created for him in the womb of the virgin. Now
he had all the weaknesses as a man. You know, as you look
at Christ in the glory of his person, you see there are times
when he speaks, where the scripture speaks of him pertaining to his
manhood. The weaknesses of the flesh.
You know, created flesh has its weaknesses. And then he suffered
those weaknesses of the human flesh, the infirmities, but he
did it without sin. Without sin. Think about that.
A sinless humanity. And he remains sinless. You know,
one of the heresies that some preachers are promoting today
is that out of 2 Corinthians 5, 21, when Christ was made sin,
as it says, or made to be sin, some of these preachers are saying
that he was made sin somehow, somehow in his person, as if
he was contaminated with our sins. As if our sin was somehow
put in him. And that's not what happened
at all. Our sins were imputed to Him, charged to Him. And all through that in His sinless
humanity, even through His crucifixion, He never had a sinful thought
or motive. He remained the sinless Son of
God, even though He was guilty before His Father, but only by
the accounting, the charging of our sins to Him. And so, being this, now look,
it says a son is given. The son was not born. Now he
says, you know, for unto us a child is born, that's his humanity.
His humanity had a beginning. But his sonship as the second
person of the Trinity had no beginning. Co-equal with the
Father and the Spirit and every attribute of deity. And the son
was given by the Father. And that speaks of his deity.
The Bible says, you know, I think about Matthew 121 that I've got
listed here. The angel came to Joseph and
told him not to put Mary away because she was with child while
they weren't married yet. And so he told him, he says,
not only don't put her away, but he says, here's what you're
gonna name that child. his name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. So that speaks
of his mission, and we're gonna get to that in just a minute
in detail. But then in Matthew 1, 23, and I look at it this
way, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Well, you might ask the question,
well, is he able to do that? Well, in Matthew 1.23, the angel
goes on and says, his name shall be called Immanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. So if there's any doubt that
this person named Jesus could save us from our sins, understand
that he's got another name, Immanuel. He's God with us. He's the word
made flesh to dwell among us. And you know, He still exists
in glory as God-man. He does, and He'll exist throughout
eternity as God-man, our mediator. And He will save us from our
sins. And that, look over at Matthew, just turn back one page
to Isaiah 7 and verse 4. That Matthew 1, 23 is quoted
from this passage in Isaiah chapter seven, verse
14, where it says, therefore the Lord himself shall give you
a sign. And what that sign was gonna
be was the coming of the Messiah. And he says, behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. That's where that's quoted from.
So we're talking about the glorious person. Now, this is the kind
of person that it took to put away our sins. As our sins were
imputed to him, what did he have to do to save us from our sins? Well, the first thing he had
to do is he had to become flesh because the penalty of sin is
death and he had to die. Now, God cannot die. But this
person who is God did die, and that's to be attributed to his
humanity. And think about it, when he sent his disciples down
and instituted the Lord's Supper, he said, this is my body which
is broken for you. That's his sinless body, that's
his sacrifice unto the Father. Well, then it says in Isaiah
9, verse 6, it says, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder. Now what government is he talking
about? He's talking about the government of the covenant of
grace. The government of the kingdom of God. The government
of the salvation of His people. The origin of it, the foundation
of it, the keeping of it, the ruling of it. It's upon Christ's
shoulders. Now what does that mean? That
means it's all conditioned on Him. It's not conditioned on
us. That's why the gospel is not
salvation conditioned on sinners, That's the false gospel that
prevails today in false Christianity. The gospel is salvation conditioned
on Christ, this person, this glorious person who's both God
and man. And the gospel says that he in
his person fulfilled all those conditions. He obeyed the law. He went to the cross and died,
suffered for our sins, paid the penalty in full. was buried and
arose again the third day, and that whole transaction that this
person, the God-man, the son given and the child born, that
whole transaction is summarized in that one phrase, the righteousness
of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, the Jew first, the Greek also, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. That righteousness
of God there is the entire merit and worth and value of the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ to ensure the salvation
of everyone he represented. And before the foundation of
the world, he was made the surety of his people. And that's when
the government was placed upon his shoulder. And I've got quoted
in your lesson here, Hebrews chapter two and verse 17, if
you want to look at that. God the Father chose a people
to save before the world began, gave them to his son, How do
we know he gave them to Christ? Because Christ said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. And they were given to Christ,
that he's our surety, our sins imputed to him, and that he would
come into the world and save us from our sins. And we're called
his brethren. And so look at this Hebrews 2.17,
it says, wherefore, in all things, it behooved him. Now that word
behooved is the Greek word for debt. In other words, he came
into the world because he had a debt to pay. Now whose debt
was it? Well, it was our debt, our sin
debt. We sinned against God. And we
ran up a debt, as you can see. And the only penalty for that
debt, for sin, the debt is death. The wages of sin is death. And
so it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, the son
given, the child born, that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God. offered himself as a
spotless lamb unto his father so that God would be just to
justify sinners like us and to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people. That's what he did. And so we
read in all of this that he had to have a human body capable
of dying in order to pay that debt. He had to be God because
the value of that death had to go out to all that the Father
gave him before the foundation of the world and bring life from
the dead. God's law had to be satisfied,
justice had to be satisfied, and Christ, as God manifest in
the flesh, satisfied it in full, and now our hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. You see that? We're going to sing that today.
I think I've got that listed as one of the hymns. Well, look
down at Isaiah 9, 6. It says, His name. Now, His name
is not just a label. It's not just something that
they picked out of a baby name book. His name, Christ has many
names. Because He is so glorious in
His person and what He accomplished. He's so glorious. that it takes
a lot of names to describe him. We know him by the name the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. But his name identifies and distinguishes
him as the one and only Savior and Lord. And it says here his
name shall be called Wonderful. That word Wonderful has to do
with a miracle, something that is awesome. How isn't the name
of Jesus something wonderful, the song says. He's wonderful
in every way, as God manifests in the flesh. His name shall
be called Counselor. We need information, don't we?
We need knowledge of who God is, who we are. I didn't really know my sins
until the Holy Spirit convicted me through the Word of God. Oh,
I knew I wasn't perfect. I knew I had that, I said I was
a sinner, but I didn't know the reality of it. I didn't have
enough information. I didn't have enough knowledge. We need knowledge of who Christ
is and how God saves sinners. Well, all that knowledge comes
from God through our counselor, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever
you want to know, you can know through him. He's the mighty
God, it says. Every attribute of deity found
in him. He's the everlasting father.
That's not confusing God the Father and God the Son as if
they're the same. There's one God, but there's
three persons in the Godhead. And that's something we cannot
explain, but it's true. And each person in the Godhead
has an office and a work to do in the salvation of sinners.
God the Father, He's the one who chose a people. He's the
originator, His love and His electing grace. And God the Son,
He is the procurator, you might say. He's the one who brought
salvation. He is our salvation. He is our
righteousness. And God the Spirit, He applies
it. So when it says He's the everlasting Father, He's not
saying He and God the Father are one and the same in their
offices. He's talking about Christ here as the savior of his people
who are sometimes called his children, his seed. Over in 1
John 3, 9 it says, his seed will never leave him. And so as far
as salvation and what came forth from his work is his children. And we're children of the Father
also. And then he's called the Prince of Peace because peace
with God God reconciled to us and us reconciled to God comes
through the blood of the cross, comes through Christ. Now verse
seven speaks of the success of what this glorious person upon
whom all of our salvation was conditioned, the success of that
work as it goes out. He says in verse seven, of the
increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end
upon the throne of David. and upon his kingdom. He's not
gonna fail. Think about that. He didn't fail. Now we fail all the time. That's
why salvation is not conditioned on us. But our salvation, having
been conditioned on Christ, he never fails. And that's the insurance,
the assurance that we have of our salvation unto final glory. There's not one sinner for whom
Christ died and was buried and arose again who will fail to
enter glory. Why? Because of the increase
of his government and peace. Nothing can destroy our peace
with God the Father. because it was made for us by
Christ the Prince of Peace. And his kingdom, the throne of
David, that speaks of his humanity and he was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh. And he says to order it, the
order of the kingdom is in his hands. Not ours. Doesn't that comfort you? It
does me. And to establish it, The establishment,
the foundation of it, the immovability of it, and what's it established
on? Look at it. With judgment and with justice. God is just to save sinners like
us based upon the righteousness of Christ freely imputed to us
and received by God-given faith. And he says, from henceforth
even forever. Think about that. And then he
says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Now
you know what zeal is. Zeal is an urgency within our
hearts to accomplish something or to have something. We can
have zeal for a better job. We can have zeal for a better
paycheck. We can have zeal for our children. Be zealous. Well, what kind of
zeal does the Lord of Hosts perform? Well, first of all, who is the
Lord of Hosts? Now, I think I told you last week, I believe it was,
we were talking about this. When you see the Lord of Hosts,
literally, that means the Lord of a great army who cannot be defeated. He's
invincible. And who is that? Well, that's
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. That's the great army.
And what zeal does he have? He has a zeal for his own glory
accomplished in the salvation of his people through Christ. That's his zeal. In other words,
if there were, think about it this way, if one sinner For whom
God chose before the foundation of the world, whom God loved
with an everlasting love, for whom Christ died, who was justified
by the blood of Christ, if one of those sinners perished in
eternal damnation, God would lose his glory. That's right. God would have more to lose than
we would. But he will not lose his glory. He will save his people
from their sins. Again, what did Christ say? This
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again the last
day. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. Now, we're to be zealous as believers,
as sinners saved by grace, we're to be zealous for his glory.
We're to be zealous in the gospel. We're to be zealous in worship,
to come and worship Him in spirit and in truth. That ought to be
a zeal in us. That ought to well up in our
hearts. I want to worship God. Now let me tell you this, now
that zeal doesn't always trickle down to feelings. It doesn't
mean I always feel like doing this or feel like doing that
because the flesh is going after us. But that zeal comes from
a knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And that's what ought to make me zealous to be here this morning,
to listen to the gospel, to be in fellowship with God's people.
So we're to have all those zeals. We're to be zealous in obedience. Zealous of good works, the scripture
says. But here's the thing. Our zeal
is the fruit and product of His zeal. And it's not our zeal that
saves us. It's His zeal that saves us. You understand that? And it's
His zeal that gives us our zeal. So the Lord of hosts, the zeal
of the Lord of hosts will perform this. There's no way that any
of his children can perish. He's glorified in the salvation
of sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very revelation
of the glory of God. Okay.