Isaiah chapter 7. The title of
the message is The Sign of the Virgin Birth. There is a gap
of about 16 years between chapter 6 and chapter 7 of Isaiah. Those years are the reign of
Jotham, Uzziah's son. Scripture has not recorded any
of Isaiah's prophecies during those years. I'm sure he prophesied,
but Scripture is not pleased to record those. But here in
chapter 7, we have a very important prophecy recorded for our learning. In this chapter, God sends a
trial to Israel. And he does that so people will
see not only how God's going to deliver his people from trial
and trouble, but how God saves sinners. So let's look at this
and see if we might learn something. Beginning in verse 1. And it
came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of
Uzziah, king of Judah, reason the king of Syria and Pekah,
the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem
to war against it, but could not prevail against it. Now this
trial came to Israel for a reason. Ahaz is a very wicked king. He never did do what was right
in the eyes of the Lord. He never did follow the ways
of the Lord. Ahaz was an idolater from the
beginning. He built many places, groves
and high places like that to worship idols. And God allowed
these other kings to come in and they did a lot of damage
to Israel. In just one day, this King Pekah
killed 120,000 valiant men, took 200,000 men, women, and children
captive. And then a little while later,
these two kings came back and they besieged Jerusalem. Their
objective is to take Jerusalem, but God stopped them right there.
They could not prevail and take the city. But the situation looked
dire. The people didn't know God wasn't
going to let them take the city yet. It looked like Jerusalem
would be overrun at any moment. In verse 2, it was told the house
of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was
moved in the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are
moved with the wind. And the people heard the news of this
siege and this giant army of these two kings coming to war
against them. Their hearts were moved with
fear. I mean, they were shaken to their
core. They weren't stout hearted at all. They were just like trees. Just the slightest breeze moves
those branches. That's just this news just moved
their heart with fear. And, you know, that's what sin
does to us. Sin makes us full of fear, not stout hearted, but
full of fear and faint hearted. We'd be stout hearted if we're
looking to Christ. But they're not stout-hearted.
They're faint-hearted because they're not looking to Christ.
They're looking to their own resources. You know, they see
this big army come up against them, and the first thing they
do is think, well, you know, we had, just a little while ago,
we had 120,000 valiant soldiers killed. You know, we don't have
much of an army left. We don't have much resources. And they're full
of fear because they're looking at themselves and their resources.
Well, verse 3, Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now
to meet Ahaz, Thou and Shearash She asked him, thy son, at the
end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's
field. God told Isaiah, you take your
son and you go deliver God's message to King Ahaz. And God
told Isaiah exactly where he'd find Ahaz. You're going to find
him in the fuller's field, in the pool there at the fuller's
field. And that's where they washed garments that they needed
to make white. That's where they washed them.
That's what a fuller's job was, is to make garments white. And
here already we see a picture of how God's going to deliver
his people. There is a way that a sinner can be washed white
as snow. God's made a way. There is a way. And God is going
to send that message to men. Sinners can't figure it out.
God's got to send that message to sinners to tell them how they
can be washed white as snow. And you know how that message
comes to men? The Father and the Son come together. to where
we are and bring that message and to tell us how sinners can
be made white as snow. Now remember that. We're going
to come back to that at the end of our text. The Father and the
Son come together to bring this message. But sin has made us
full of fear. I mean, the people are so fearful
and God's message to the fearful is fear not. Look at verse 4.
And say unto him, take heed. Now you pay attention and listen.
Be quiet. Well, it would be an awful good
idea to be quiet and let God speak, wouldn't it? Pay attention
and be quiet. Listen. Fear not. Needn't be
fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands,
for the fierce anger of reason with Syria and of the son of
Ramaliah. Fear not. Now, you pay attention to the
word of the Lord and be quiet. Don't be buttoned. Don't be saying,
well, I thought. Just be quiet. And listen to
the word of the Lord. Fear not. Now, I know these kings
look like a mighty fighting force to you, but you know what they
are to God? They're just smoking firebrands that God's going to
snuff out between his finger and thumb. A firebrand is just
like the few little stray strands of flax that, you know, they
might catch on fire or something. They're just smoking, not even
burning good, you know, not a good flame. They're just smoking.
That's a smoking firebrand, smoking flax. And that smoke is offensive
in God's nose. He's going to snuff that out.
And He's going to do it quick. Now, if that's God's Word, that
ought to have relieved all the fear, all the anxiety. It should
have just removed it all. God's Word is sure. That's one
of the things that's so comforting about God's Word. It's sure. This is going to happen. If God
says they're just firebrands and be snuffed out, it's going
to happen. You don't have to worry about
them anymore. The cure for fear, the cure for a fearful heart
is hearing God's word, believing God's word and looking to Christ.
That'll cure fear every single time. And here's why. God tells us why these rebel
kings are sure to fail. They're rebelling against God.
It's not just Ahaz. They're rebelling against God.
Now, they're acting out their hatred on Judah, but really they
hate God. and they're rebelling against
him, they're trying to overthrow the rule of God, which is what
all God's enemies try to do. Look at verse 5. Don't be afraid,
because Syria and Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah have taken
evil counsel against thee, saying, Let's go up against Judah and
vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king
in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal. Now, these kings,
they're vexing God's people, but their purpose is to remove
the throne of God and set up their own throne and install
their own king there that they can control. They want a king
that they can have under their thumb and tell him what to do
so they can control him. And that wicked desire is sure
to fail. It fails every time. Lucifer
tried it and was cast out of heaven. Adam tried it and he
fell and was cast out of the garden. And every son of Adam
who's ever tried to take God off his throne has failed. Look back at Psalm 2, the second
psalm. Now they might take counsel together,
they might gather them up in a big group, but that counsel
will fail every time. Psalm 2, verse 1. Why do the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away
their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh." This is not a serious threat to his throne. He that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, and he will vex them in his sword displeasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare
the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son, This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the
earth for thy possession." God's king is going to reign. No group
of men can take him off his throne. But this is what they're trying
to do here in Isaiah 7. Now look back at our text, verse
8. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is reason.
And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken,
that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is Ramaliah's son. If ye will not believe,
surely ye shall not be established." Now, the kings who rule in these
capital cities, you know, they're the heads. Well, they're not
going to be able to expand their kingdoms. This whole thing is
going to come crashing down. In less than 65 years, They're
not even going to be a people anymore. Now, apparently, that's
not good enough for Ahaz. Ahaz is king now. He wants the
problem taken care of now. But in less than 65 years, these
enemies aren't even going to be a people anymore. And God
tells him, now, if you believe, you'll be established. If you
believe, you'll be established. Anyone who believes Christ will
be established. Anyone who believes Christ will
be saved by Him. Why don't you believe? Why don't
we believe? That just shows you how much
God must give us faith to be mixed with everything we hear.
Because if He doesn't give us faith, we won't believe. He has
not given faith to Ahaz. Ahaz does not believe. He does
not believe God. God's promise is not good enough
for him. So I want you to look in verse 10 how patient God is
with sinners. Moreover, the Lord spake again
unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, ask it either
in the depth or in the height above. Now, God knows Ahaz doesn't
believe Him, but instead of striking him down, God offers to that
wicked idolater, He said, I'll confirm my word to you with a
sign, with a miracle. You just ask. Ahaz, you ask for
any great sign, some great sign in heaven above. some great sign
in the depths out there in the ocean, and you'll see it. It'll
be done. Whatever sign you ask will be
done so that you'll see. You'll see my power and you'll
believe. I'm going to take care of this.
I'm going to deliver you from this problem. Just ask me a sign. Now look at verse 12. But Ahaz
said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. Now that
sounds on the surface like a good answer, doesn't it? It even sounds
like a scriptural answer. You shall not tempt the Lord
your God. He sounds like he's given a scriptural answer. But
Ahaz is a rebel. Now don't let him fool you. Ahaz
is a rebel. And like so many rebels, what
he's doing is he's cloaking his rebellion in religion. He's taking
scripture and putting it out of context and he's cloaking
his rebellion in religion. He's using God's word as an excuse
for his rebellion. Now, I grant you on the surface,
it sounds wrong to ask God to give me a sign to confirm your
promise, to confirm your word. That sounds wrong, doesn't it?
Look at Hebrews chapter 6. But do you know God's done exactly
that? We ought not need confirmation
from God that his word is true, that his promise is sure. But
God's already given us a sign to confirm his word. In Hebrews
6 verse 13, For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, the unchangeableness of his counsel,
he confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,
who had fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. By two immutable things. Well,
what two immutable things? God's word, and he confirmed
it with an oath. which is also unchangeable and
immutable. God's already confirmed his word
with an oath. So it seems like it would be
wrong for us to ask for a sign. It's, you know, God's will or
God's purpose or whatever. But there must be times it's
okay. There has to be times it's okay
to ask God for a sign to confirm, you know, his will or his way.
That's exactly what Gideon did. You know, he put out his fleece
and one day it had dew on it and the next day it didn't. He
confirmed, you know, God confirmed his will, his promise with this
sign to Gideon. Now, I don't know how to tell
the difference. You know, I don't know when it's right to ask for
a sign and when it's not. I don't know. But I do know this. If God says, ask for me, ask
me for a sign, it must be okay. If God says ask, it must be okay
to ask. But Ahaz didn't ask for a sign.
Because Ahaz did not want God to deliver him. He didn't want
to be beholden to God. If God delivered him, Ahaz is
going to be beholden to God, and he don't want that. Ahaz
already, he already has a plan. Long before this happened, he
arranged an ally, Assyria. He had a treaty with Assyria,
and he gave Assyria a bunch of money and told him, now here
we've got this treaty, we're confederates, and whenever I
need help, you come help me. Ahaz is going to deliver himself.
He's got a good plan. He's just going to pull himself
up by his own two bootstraps. He doesn't want God to help him
because he doesn't want God to get the credit. But you know,
this alliance with Assyria is going to fail Ahaz. And that
treaty with Assyria is man's relationship with God's law.
The law never gets enough. No matter what you do, you can't
quit. You always got to keep giving
more, more, more, more. When it came time to help Ahaz,
he'd already paid Assyria. They had this agreement. You
give me this, I'll help you. Assyria said, all right. But
when it came time to help him, Assyria said, we need more. Ahaz sent him more. And they
said, you know, we did some calculations and we need more. And Ahaz emptied
the temple of all its valuables, all that gold and bronze, all
the valuables that were in the temple and sent it to Assyria.
And Assyria was still no help to Ahaz. That's man's alliance
with the law. No matter what you've done in
the past, the law wants more. Always says more. You can't quit.
The law can't help us because of our sin nature. We can't do
enough to please the law. Now verse 13, Ahaz said, I won't
tempt the Lord in asking for a sign. And he said, this is
Isaiah speaking, Hear ye now, house of David, is it a small
thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also?
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,
God with us. Butter and honey shall he eat,
that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. And
we need to learn the same truth that Ahaz needed to learn. Salvation
is not in our covenant. It's not in our works. It's not
in our righteousness. It's not in anything we do. Salvation
is in God's covenant, in God's covenant of grace. And men who
preach salvation by works and salvation by man's decision and
salvation by man's doing All they do is weary men. They just
put a burden on them that no man can bear. They're just weary
people. I had gotten dressed this evening. I was waiting on Janet. I just
flipped on the TV. There was Benny Hinn. I thought, well, that ought to
be interesting, you know. And I was watching old Benny
Hinn and this nut job with him. He was talking like, he said,
I'm like the Apostle Paul. I can see into the spirit of
a man and know when he's a believer what God's doing and all the
crazy stuff. And he's got his eyes closed
and he's praying. And all of a sudden he stops
and he said, I see it. He points at the camera and he
said, I see it. He said, it's just like that lad with the two
loaves and the five fishes. He said, two, five, two, five,
250. Everybody gets $250. That's what I see, you know.
I don't have $250. He's just putting a burden on
people. Just, he wearies people. Just,
you know, you turn on tomorrow, I want to send my $250. He wants
more, you know. He wearies people. That's just, oh, what a burden.
And you think that wearies you and me. What a weary. I don't even know what to call
it. That's just diatribe. That is the Holy God. That self-righteous ridiculousness
is a smoke in God's nose. It just wearies the Holy One. So with all that as a backdrop,
you know, the only reason you and me aren't that fellow on
TV is God's mercy to us. He just kept us from being there.
Thank God. God delights to show mercy to
sinners. We've got to say nature, that
nut job does. Thank God he delights to show
mercy to sinners. Thank God his purpose of redemption
and his son is not affected by unbelief and rebellion of men. Thank God he's found of them
that sought me not. You don't ask for a sign, I'm
going to give you one anyway. I'm found of them that sought
me not. And what a sign God sends. What a sign! God sends a sign
of His great love. What's the sign? What's the reason
you know God loves His people? He sent His Son. He sent His
Son to redeem them. God sent the Redeemer of sinners. He will send a Deliverer from
the trial. He'll send a Comforter for sorrow. That Deliverer and that Comforter
is one and the same with the Savior. Christ is all. The Savior will also be the deliverer
and the comforter. Christ is all. And that's the
sign God sends to His people. He will deliver His people. What
a sign. Now look over Romans chapter
8. If God sends the Savior from sin, don't you imagine He's going
to provide for everything else too? This matter of being delivered
from sin, having your sin paid for, that's the most important
thing. If God takes care of that, don't you reckon He's going to
take care of all these lesser things, too? Absolutely, He will. Romans 8, verse 31. What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? God will freely give His people
all things. The sign for confirmation that
God sent is the Savior. He sent his Son. But the Savior
who comes, now this is not just the Jesus of our imagination
now, the Savior who comes, he's got to have the power to save.
But he also has to have the ability to be the sacrifice for sin,
the sin of sinful men. So that's why God, he sends the
sign that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. The Savior, he's
not just, if the Savior is not born of a virgin, then we don't
have gospel preach. If the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, if he's not born of a virgin, we may as well go home because
we're wasting our time. We're wasting our time preaching
Christ if Christ is not born of a virgin. That's a very lengthy
introduction to make these three points. I won't keep you long.
The introduction is probably longer than these three points. The first point is this. Christ
the Savior must be born by the virgin birth. Has to be. If Christ
is not born of a virgin, then he is not and he cannot be the
Savior of sinners. Christ, if he's going to be the
Savior, cannot have an earthly father. If he had an earthly
father, then he's going to partake in Adam's sin and Adam's guilt,
isn't he? Sin is passed on to our children
by the seed of the father. Not the seed of the mother, the
seed of the father. So the Savior can't have a human
father. Because if he did, he's a partaker
of Adam's guilt. He's got sin of his own. He can't
be the Savior of other sinners. But the Savior still has to come
into flesh. If he's going to be the representative
of sinfulness, He's going to be the sacrifice for sinful men.
He's got to come in the flesh. And he's got to come in the flesh,
but he must be spotless. He has to be perfect and holy. So he can't be born of Adam's
seed. He's got to come from the woman's seed. And that's why
when God thrust Adam out of the garden, the first thing he did
is he promised the Savior, who would be what? The seed of woman. Adam, it's not going to be your
seed that crushes the serpent's head. It's going to be the seed
of the woman that crushes the serpent's head. Now look over
Matthew chapter 1. Here's the fulfillment of Isaiah's
prophecy. The seed of woman, the virgin,
is going to give birth to the Savior. Matthew 1 verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ
was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused Before
they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."
I mean, what a scandal, what a problem for Joseph. Here he
is, his spouse to this woman, and she's pregnant? This is a
serious problem for this man. I mean, he could have had her
stoned. I mean, the law said he could have. But I like old
Joseph. Look what it says here. That
Joseph, her husband, being a just man, not willing to make her
a public example, was minded to put her away for privilege.
He's going to keep this thing private. and he's going to spare
her shame and humiliation. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, Savior, for he shall save
his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet,
saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which, being
interpreted, is God with us. And Joseph, being raised from
sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took
unto him his wife, and he knew her not, till she had brought
forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. The
Lord Jesus was not conceived by human seed, but by divine
seed, by the Holy Ghost. Now look over in Hebrews chapter
10. The Lord Jesus was made without the aid of a man. Mary conceived
of the Holy Ghost. In Hebrews 10 verse 4, for it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and of goats should take away sins. When he cometh
into the world, he sayeth, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not.
But a body hast thou prepared me. The Father prepared a body
for his Son, a holy body that would be fit to be offered as
a sacrifice for sin. Now, if you ask me, it is an
absolute miracle any time a baby is born. I mean, a woman gets
pregnant and she brings forth this baby. Just, it's the most
amazing thing in this world to me. How about a mother giving birth
to a son who's a virgin? That's impossible. It can't be.
Well, you're right. With men, that'd be impossible.
But man's not involved in this thing. With God, this is not
impossible. Our Lord Jesus Christ was born
of a mother who was a virgin. Now what a sign. What a sign
God gave us. He's going to save his people.
Now, let me give you a word on Mary. I doubt anybody here really
needs this, but let me give it to you anyway. Our young people
might run into this. You know, you hear people in
Catholicism and things, they make Mary out to be the mediator. You know, they pray to Mary.
And she'll go to the Lord, you know, get him to do whatever
it is you want him to do. And they make that up because
that's the way it is for you and me. You know, if Holly and
Savannah want me to do something, if the real guy did, then go
talk to Janet. She'll get me to do it. She'll
talk some sense into me. This is not the way that we approach
the Lord. Not through Mary at all. The
virgin birth does not elevate Mary above any believer. Not
at all. Mary has absolutely no part in
the atonement. Mary has no part in being the
mediator. There's one atonement. There's
one sacrifice, and it's the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's
one mediator. There's not two. There's one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. But Mary
is very blessed, isn't she? I mean, is she blessed? What
a blessing to be chosen to be the mother of the Lord. But look
over in Luke 1. She's blessed. But is she blessed
above other believers? No. She's not blessed above other
women. Did you notice that when we read
this in Luke 1, verse 28, when we opened the service? And the
angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored,
for the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women,
not above women. among women. She's blessed among
every believer. Mary is a picture of every believer. She's just like every believer.
Mary was elect, wasn't she? God chose her to be the mother
of His Son. She's highly favored. So is every
child of God. If you're a child of God, it's
because God elected you. He chose you. You're a child
of God because you're highly favored of God, just like Mary
was. Mary was visited by God the Holy Spirit. She was joined
to God the Holy Spirit. So was every believer when the
Holy Spirit visits you in the new birth. Mary had Christ formed
in her. She had Christ formed in her
womb. So does every believer. Christ
is formed in every believer. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul said, I'm going to labor
till Christ be what? Formed in you. Christ is formed
in every believer. Mary was blessed for Christ's
sake. And Mary was hated for Christ's sake. It's obvious to
see how Mary was blessed for Christ's sake, but she was hated
for Christ's sake too. When those Pharisees told our
Lord, we'd be not born of fornication. You know what they're calling
his mother? She was hated for Christ's sake. They're saying,
you're born out of wedlock. We're not born of fornication.
Your mother's a fornicator. That's what they're saying. She
was hated for Christ's sake. Every believer is blessed for
Christ's sake. Every blessing we have is for
His sake. It's what He earned for us, what
He purchased for us. And every believer is hated by
this world for Christ's sake. had to be born of a virgin. And
Mary was a virgin. She gave birth to her firstborn
son. He had to be born of a virgin so he didn't partake of Adam's
sin nature and Adam's guilt. But he still had to be born of
a woman so he'd be the Savior. He'd be born in the flesh. He'd
be the Savior of men. The second point is this. The
virgin birth produced a real man so that he could be the Savior
of men. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a real
man. He's real humanity. He had a
real body of flesh, a body that grew tired, that grew hungry,
that grew thirsty, that felt pain, that felt sorrow. He had
a real body of human flesh. And he has a real human nature. But he received his humanity,
not from the seed of a man, from the seed of a woman. And we see
that our Lord was a real man from our text. He's Emmanuel,
God with us. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
with His people in every way. He's with us. He came in all
the weakness and limitation of our flesh, yet without sin. So
He's able to comfort us. In all of our weakness, He's
able to comfort us because He's been there first. He's the high
priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmity.
Well, how can God be touched with the feeling of our infirmity?
He is made flesh, that's how. He's with us. Christ is with
us by incarnation. He was made what we are. He came
incarnate, made what we are, so that He could make His people
be what He is. He came where we are so He could
take us to be with Him where He is. Christ is with His people
in the new birth. Christ is formed in us by the
Holy Spirit in the new birth. And now Christ is in you. If
you believe Christ, He's in you. He's with you. He's in your heart,
sitting on the throne, ruling and reigning. He's with you.
And He's able to save sinful men because He's with us. Because He came in our flesh.
And He came as a real man, without sin. He's able to save His people. He was tempted in all points
like as we are, but he never sinned. He established perfect
righteousness for his people as a man. And our Lord Jesus
is a real man. Isaiah prophesied he's going
to eat butter and honey. He'll eat solid food. And that
may, that butter and honey may be a picture of grace and all
these things will flow from him. But I know this, butter and honey
are solid food. Our Lord ate solid food because
He's a real man. He did the same thing after He
rose from the grave. His disciples, they thought they
saw a ghost. He said, no, I'm real. Touch me. Handle me. You got anything to eat? They
gave Him some fish and honeycomb. And He ate solid food to show
He's a real man. He's there in the flesh. The
virgin birth produced a real man. But that man is God with
all the attributes of God. That's the third point. The virgin
birth produced the Savior, who's God, who has all the power of
God to save sinners. That baby, born of a virgin,
had to be wrapped up and, you know, be kept warm, had to be
kept safe, had to be kept fed. I can't explain that, but that
baby's God. He's almighty God. What a sign. Our text says, that he may know
to refuse the good and choose the evil." The Lord Jesus Christ
never sinned. He always chose the good. He
always refused the evil. He always obeyed the law perfectly. He was always perfectly righteous. How can that man do that? Because
he's God. That's how. God can't sin. He's
holy. Only God could never sin and
only God could be perfectly holy. And that's very important. Because
sinners like us need a sinless sacrifice. We need a sinless
substitute. We need a representative who
is righteous so he can impute that righteousness to us. God's
son was given through the virgin birth. And he was born God. The deity of Christ did not begin
when he was born in Bethlehem's manger. Christ is eternal. He didn't begin then. He's always
been. He is. He is, I am. The humanity of
Christ had its beginning in Bethlehem. When God inhabits that body that
the Father prepared for Him, but His deity is eternal. Now
look over at page Isaiah 9. That child that's born is God.
He's God in human flesh. The God-man. Isaiah 9, verse
6. For unto us a child is born,
the child, that baby, that humanity is born, but the son is given.
The son couldn't be born, he's eternal. The child is born and
the son is given. And the government should be
upon his shoulder. And his name should be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. That baby was born as God. Now
look in Hebrews chapter 2. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them,
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that
he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor."
He's able to comfort them that are tempted. Now that's deep,
isn't it? That God, man. As much God as
if he were not man. as if he were not God. Some years
ago, that's, in case you don't know, I didn't come up with that.
I'm not that smart. That's Scott Richardson. But I would quote
that years ago when I was teaching Bible school. One of the little
fellas in there, he just always, that doesn't make sense. How
can you be a hundred percent God and a hundred percent man? He just always just, that, I
can't grasp that. Nobody can. One more scripture,
2 Timothy chapter 3. What do you say to that? That's
too deep for me. I don't know what to say, but
let's use the words of the apostle here. What a sign. I'm in 2 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter
3. There we go. 1 Timothy 3. Verse 16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. Now, this is a great mystery.
God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh
as a man, justified in the Spirit, seed of angels, priesthood of
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into
glory. What a sign! Now, here's the
conclusion. We have God's promise. He will
deliver His people. from trouble and trial. He will
give grace that's sufficient for every trial. He will be with
his people in every fire and every flood. Well, what's the
greatest sign that you can think of that God's going to do what
he said he'd do? What's the greatest sign you think of? God's going
to deliver his people. God's going to give you grace
for the hour. I'll tell you what that sign is. He sent his son
into this world. Born of a virgin, so he could
be the savior of his people. What a sign. A virgin giving
birth to a son. Now that's a sign of God's power. Only God could cause a son to
be born of a virgin. That's a sign of God's love.
That he would cause his son to be made flesh and be born of
a virgin. And that's a sign of God's wisdom.
God found the way. to be just and justifier through
His Son, born of a virgin. What a sign! And if Christ saved
His people from their sin, and He did, if Christ made His people
the righteousness of God in Him, and He did, then He's going to
comfort His people. He's going to deliver His people.
He'll be with them in every fire and every flood. In verse 4,
the prophet said to be quiet. Fear not. Don't be overcome with
fear. You know how not to be overcome
with fear? To trust in this one born of a virgin. He was born
of a virgin so he could be the savior of sinful men. I believe
that will dispel my fear, won't you?