Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

Well, thank you for following me in this little study of some of the names given to the Lord Jesus by Isaiah the prophet when he prophesied about the incarnation, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world as a little baby in the manger. And this is what Isaiah is talking about in this passage and it is with respect to this coming of Christ in the incarnation that these names are attributed to the child.

Isaiah told the Old Testament Church some 800 years before the coming of the Lord Jesus. He was telling the Old Testament Church that the coming person, the coming child, the coming Messiah would be wonderful. He was telling the Old Testament church that he would be our counselor. And he told that church that he would be the mighty God. These names elevated the child above ordinary men. This was to be no ordinary birth. And as we saw last week, it also announced the divinity of the child who would be born. Christ, the son who was given, is himself the mighty God.

Today we come to the next name in this verse. And I've got to admit, simply as a title, it is the most puzzling to me. Here, the Lord Jesus is called the everlasting Father. And I've wondered if Isaiah himself might not have thought it a bit odd to be calling this holy child the Father. Last week, we noted that in the Trinity, the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, the Lord Jesus is God the Son. But here, he is being called the Everlasting Father. So which is it? And how do we explain this relationship?

Well, let's see if we can cast a little bit of light on what is happening here in this verse. The first thing to note, and I think this is probably quite clear to us all, the first thing to note is that even naturally, a man can be both a son and a father. He can be a son and a father at the same time. Right now, I am a son, a father, and I'm a grandfather as well. And I think this is a clue to the answer of what is being talked about here in this verse. The Lord Jesus, of course, did not have any natural children. He did not father any physical children, but he does have many spiritual children. He is the Son of God, and he is father to a spiritual family. And this is the sense in which Isaiah is speaking.

Let me show you something. One of the ways the Bible describes the work of the Lord Jesus is as a house builder. Not in the sense of building a house with a roof and four walls, but in the sense of being father over a large family. In the Bible, that is spoken of as building a house, being the father over a large family. Abraham, Isaac. Jacob, even Moses were called, these men were called fathers or patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel. And a patriarch is the male head of a family or a tribe or a community or a large number of people. And the Lord Jesus is the head over his own house or his family, the church. In Hebrews chapter three and verse six, we read this, but Christ as a son, so that is as the son of God, but Christ as a son over his own house, Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end? What we're being taught here in Hebrews is to think of the church, the body of Christ, as Christ's own house. Because he, by his life and sacrifice, built it up. He built his family, the community of people for whom he died. He gave them life. And it was he who brought them into being spiritually. A natural father brings his natural children into life spiritually. are into being naturally. And here the Lord Jesus Christ, by his work, on our behalf, has brought his people, his family, into being spiritually.

So while we rightly think of God the Father as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the one to whom we pray, for example, when we say, our Father which art in heaven. And while we know that there is only one Father in the Godhead, that is the first person, God the Father, then God the Son, then God the Holy Spirit, there is only one Father in the Godhead. Nevertheless, here Isaiah is telling the church that the Lord Jesus in his mediatorial role God incarnate has a fatherly function, has a fatherly role as protector of his children and provider for all our needs.

He brings us into being as our father, he protects us as our father and he provides for all our needs as a good father would Now some people don't have good thoughts and memories about their earthly father. But the Lord Jesus is the best father that we ever could have. He protects us against our enemies. He safeguards our lives. He provides for our growth in spiritual matters as well as our everyday needs. He who came into the world as man in our flesh can properly be considered as the builder and the father over his own house. Hebrews says, whose house and whose children are we as we trust in him.

One lovely example of the Lord fulfilling this fatherly role is the way in which he speaks tenderly, his affectionate words to his disciples when he was getting ready, preparing to go to the cross and then afterwards to heaven. He knew how hard his absence would be for his disciples. And he was thinking about their weakness and he was addressing them with sympathy when he says to them in John chapter 13 and verse 33, little children. Little children. That's what he called his disciples. The Lord Jesus, although these were his friends, although these were his disciples, these were his students, He calls them his little children. He took that fatherly role and he speaks to them gently and he speaks to them sympathetically and lovingly. He says, little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me. Whether I go, ye cannot come. And then he goes on to explain a little bit about what it is that's going to happen.

But the point I wanted to make and to emphasize was the way in which there is an example of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to his church as their father and calling them his children. And yet, Isaiah tells us that this fatherly role of Christ did not begin when the Lord Jesus came into the world at the incarnation. Because Isaiah is very clear. He says that the name of this child is the Everlasting Father. Because the Lord Jesus has taken this role from everlasting, from eternity. And here we again see the amazing breadth and extent of the covenant of grace and the work of salvation. We learn that the Lord's mediatorial office extends from everlasting to everlasting. You and I must never imagine that the work of salvation begins when we choose to trust in the Lord Jesus. Nor did our Lord Jesus become our Savior when he went to the cross, or even when he came into the world as a baby. That's not the beginning of the process of salvation. The salvation of the elect, the salvation of all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, is an eternal agreement between the three persons of the Godhead. And the plan of salvation was formed in the purpose and will of the triune God from eternity. In that covenant agreement, the Lord Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And those he came to save were given to him and their names written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Christ, the eternal word, was set up to redeem and deliver those people that the Father had chosen to save. And the Holy Spirit marked and set apart in Christ those that the Father loved and chose. Even before the world was created and before anyone was born, the elect were identified as God's people and regarded to be in Christ. And Christ uniquely represented them in the covenant of grace and under the terms of the covenant of grace. He was there, as it were, on our behalf at the time of that eternal council, speaking up for and advocating for his church who would come in this world. And in this sense, the Lord Jesus, the Son, has always been father over his own house. And just as the Lord Jesus protects and provides for his church in the world as their father, so he protects and provides for all the needs of his children in matters everlasting.

Now some people will say, how could God choose a people who did not yet exist? Or how can God forgive sin that has not been committed? How can His love or His mercy or His grace and goodness be given to creatures before they're born, before their parents are born, and before the first man and woman walked on the earth, and before even the world was made? In this way, the Father's love and mercy and grace and goodness was given to our covenant head, our covenant Father, and in him became the inheritance of every child who would be born again into the house and family of the Lord Jesus. In that way, it became our inheritance, the inheritance of every single person whom the Lord Jesus Christ represented. And this truth, this doctrine, this teaching, if you like, is sometimes called Christ's suretyship on behalf of His people.

But if you cannot remember that Christ is your surety, don't forget that He's your Father. And if you hold fast to the gospel, or hold firmly to your profession of faith in Christ, He is our father, our provider, and source of our inheritance for all things everlasting, for love, for mercy, for care, and ultimately for our glory in heaven. All the eternal blessings flow to us in and from our covenant father, Jesus Christ. And I've just got one application of these thoughts for us today. It is true the Lord Jesus is the father over his house and the covenant father of all his people. But how does that fatherhood, Christ's fatherhood, of his people become our experience? How does his relationship with his children, with its benefits and its blessings and its inheritance, how does that become our very own experience?

Well, the Apostle Paul explains it like this to the church at Corinth. He says in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 17 and 18,

Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. and I will receive you and will be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ that is here. And here the Lord Jesus is telling us that he will be our father. as we trust in Him and as we come out of the world and into the family of the Lord Jesus by faith. Come to Christ. Come away from the world and come to Christ. Don't touch what is unclean. Trust in Christ for the cleansing from sin that He gives. What does the Lord Jesus say? I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Our wonderful counsellor and mighty God will also be our everlasting father. What a gift we have in Jesus. May the Lord give us grace to arise and go to our Father. Amen.