Isaiah chapter 9, and once again I'm just going to read verse 6. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. For unto us is... I say this every time. I am sorry. Let me begin again. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. For unto us a child is born, and to us a son is given. and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

We're going to be thinking today about another one of the names that was given to the Lord by the prophet Isaiah around 800 years before the Lord Jesus Christ actually came in the incarnation. And you might remember I've mentioned that I'm looking at these names particularly because some of the young people if they're still at school or involved with their friends and local activities around this time of year, might be confronted with a reading that is made concerning the prophet Isaiah's foretelling of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a passage that's often read in carol services and various times and I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind us that there is a significance in each of these titles given to the Lord Jesus Christ and even although it was a prophecy and even although it is so many years before the Lord actually came to Nevertheless this was still revealing to the people of that age as it continues to illuminate our minds teaching the people of that age to anticipate the Lord Jesus Christ who was the wonderful the Counselor, and today, the Mighty God.

So this is our thought for a few weeks in the run-up to the Christmas season, or in the Christmas season, in the run-up to Christmas, that we're considering these titles, these names of the Lord. And the first thing I want us to notice today is that Isaiah is telling us this child who would be born This son who would be given is the mighty God. He is the mighty God. And we must never forget, when we are speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ, we are speaking of the one who is called the mighty God. not sent by the mighty God, not representing the mighty God, but as himself the mighty God.

And we've noticed in previous weeks how the names Wonderful and Counselor were attributed to this yet-to-be-born child. And while there's clear suggestion in these names, wonderful and counsellor, of Christ's greatness, there is no mistaking the direct reference to his divinity in today's explicit title. the people of Isaiah's day, and all who followed Isaiah, and all who valued the Holy Scriptures, were hereby informed of Christ's true identity. The child in the manger, the son of the Virgin, the son of Mary, was God incarnate. The eternal God come in the form and flesh of man.

Now, sometimes people get confused when we speak about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit all being one God. And they think, is it one God or is it three gods? Well, I hope you realise that trying to think about our infinite God is never going to fit easily into our earthbound and limited understanding. And yet, that does not mean that God is unknowable. And though we are sinful creatures, God has revealed himself to us in certain unmistakable ways. He has revealed himself in creation by the things that he has made and brought into existence. The immensity of space and the complexity and design of this natural world speaks to us of a creator who has created these things and yet who is infinite himself. Furthermore, he has revealed himself in the scriptures, what we've just been reading, by his prophets, by his apostles, and by the sending of his son into the world. And we might also say that he reveals himself in the hearts of individual sinners, in the hearts of men and women, and boys and girls. He reveals himself by his quickening, life-giving power. So that even though God is infinite, he has revealed himself in a number of different ways to men and women like us.

Now we mentioned the creation. We cannot tell from the creation whether there is one God or many gods. But neither can we deny the existence of powerful and wonderful forces far beyond our comprehension or imagination. What Paul calls the things that are made point to God's eternal power and reveal something of his essential being and nature, so that men and women are without excuse who deny that there is a God. We can't tell everything about God from what is created, but we can tell certain things.

It's scripture itself that begins to explain and reveal a more detailed picture of who God is. So for example, we read in Genesis chapter one and verse 26, and God said, so we know that this is a God who speaks, and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. What else can we tell about that then? Well, God speaks and he says, let us and our likeness. That sounds as if there is more than one God. Us and our are plural words. And yet a little bit further in the Bible, God reveals more about himself. In Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4, he says, Now this is not a contradiction. Taking scripture at its word, we learn there is a plurality of persons in the Godhead. One God, in three persons, each with the same power and glory.

We learn that the Father is a divine person, distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit. We learn, too, that Jesus Christ, He who came, the eternal Word, who came as the child in the manger, is truly God. and yet a person distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. We learn furthermore that the Holy Spirit is a distinct divine person, and the scriptures teach us this. Ultimately, we learn the truth of one God in three persons in our own regenerated and renewed spirit as converted believers. and God's redeemed people learn to know God in our personal experience from his dealings with our soul and his witness to our spirit.

We discover that the testimony of creation is true. We discover that the testimony of scripture is true. When we experience the personal fellowship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. And verses like our passage here in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter nine, verses like these show us how the revelation of the long-promised Messiah, because he was promised right at the very beginning, right at the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, actually, was when he was first promised. And all through the prophetic witness of the Old Testament, this revelation was promised. The Messiah was promised. And yet it developed over time. Each of the prophets adding a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more to the fullness of the revelation before the Lord Jesus Christ came. And what is revealed is that this one who would come, the Messiah, the promised one, would be more than a prophet. Not merely a messenger, there had been prophets and messengers before, but Christ was different. Not a created angel, but the incarnation of the mighty God in human flesh. And this is why the incarnation or the coming of Emmanuel is so important. Matthew says, and he's quoting Isaiah chapter 7 when he says this, he says, Matthew understood that what Isaiah had been prophesying long before was now fulfilled in this child that had been born, Emmanuel, God with us, or as Isaiah called him, both Emmanuel and the mighty God.

The coming of the child, the son, was the coming of God into the world in the person of his son Jesus Christ. and the Lord Jesus throughout his life, and especially in his ministry, and particularly in his death, demonstrated his divine nature as the mighty God.

It is a characteristic of unbelievers. It is a characteristic of cults and sects and false religion. that they deny the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, speaking of the Lord Jesus, John the Apostle says, And then he continues, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Then later in his life, in his epistles, John wrote this. 1 John 5, verse 7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And you and I must not doubt our Lord Jesus Christ. We must not doubt that he is truly God, one with the Father and with the Holy Spirit.

For in him, says Paul, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the mighty God and in his life and ministry he shows himself to be the mighty God in many ways.

It was His work of creation and it is in His works of providence or the provision of good things for His people that we see that mightiness of His power being demonstrated. His miracles speak of Him as the powerful God. his redemption of his people, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven all show us that the Lord Jesus Christ is God.

The worship that was given to him, and we might say importantly because that could have been given to him in error since it was given to him by angels and men, and yet what we discover is that it was also accepted by him. and worship belongs only to God. The Lord Jesus Christ would never have accepted worship if he was not, in truth, God himself.

In scripture, he is called our God. He is called your God. He is called their God. He is called my God. and he is said to be God manifest in the flesh. God over all, blessed forever. He's called the great God, the living God, the true God, and eternal life.

It is this one, the eternal word, the promised Messiah, the one of whom Daniel was speaking when we read together in Daniel chapter nine earlier, the one whom Isaiah is speaking of. It is he who appeared to Abraham and to Jacob and to Moses in the Old Testament and who performed all the mighty works and miracles in the lives of his people.

He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land. In the New Testament, it's His miracles called His mighty works, and they testify of His divine nature. Miracles such as healing the sick, casting out devils, changing water into wine, rebuking the wind and the sea, raising the dead, and raising His own body from the grave when He was dead.

And above all, he accomplished the great work of redemption by which he shows himself to be mighty to save. He bore our sins. He destroyed our enemies. He converts. He quickens. That means he gives us new life. He gives us eternal life. He is the beginning of our faith. He maintains our faith. and will finish the work of faith in his people's lives.

He supplies all our needs. He provides all our righteousness. He keeps us from falling away. He mediates for us in heaven at his father's throne. He intercedes for us in glory. He is preparing a place for us in heaven and will come again and take us to the marriage feast of the Lamb. He will judge the world in righteousness. He will destroy this old creation, and he will make a new heaven and a new earth.

And in all these ways, our Lord Jesus Christ shows himself to be truly the mighty God. The testimony of the prophets, the scriptures, the apostles, and the Lord himself show Jesus to be the mighty God. When we trust in Him, He will come into our heart and witness to us that our Saviour is our God, that Christ is our King, that He is worthy of our love and our worship and our trust and our commitment, that He is wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God.

May the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.