So we're in Isaiah chapter nine, and we have been for some long time now studying the kings and queens of Israel and Judah, from Saul and David to Ahab and Jehoshaphat. through the books of Samuel and the first book of Kings.

And because we've come to a little bit of a natural break And because we are coming near to Christmas time, when many of our young people at school or in the media will be engaging with and no doubt enjoying the excitement and trappings of the Christmas season, I thought that I would spend a little time looking at some of the names given to the Lord Jesus Christ in this famous prophecy in Isaiah 9.

So I want to read to you verses 6 and 7. Verses 6 and 7 of Isaiah chapter 9. This is what it says. 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, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom 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.

So our principle verse, I guess, over the next few weeks is going to be 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, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Just to sketch out my thoughts, what I'm going to do is in each of the next five weeks, which will take us up to just before Christmas, we will consider Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace as names of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that wherever a religious element is at all given to Christmas, these verses are sure to be read. But how many ever stop to think about what these names and titles of the Lord Jesus Christ actually mean?

So I'm going to take, as I say, each of these five names given here to the Saviour by Isaiah, and we should say by the Holy Spirit, so that we can think together what it means when we say that this Christ child, this Jesus, born in a manger, born in Bethlehem, is wonderful. the counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. It's no good just thinking that these are phrases or names. All of these things have meaning. All of these things are profound and true and glorious. and all of them will do our hearts good if we think about them in a spirit of prayer and praise.

So today then, we're going to take this first name, Wonderful. Our Lord Jesus is called Wonderful. And he is wonderful. Wonderful is a proper name of the Lord Jesus. It isn't simply a description. And yet, his name does describe his person and his character and his works. His name shall be called Wonderful, says Isaiah. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that. son that would be given, and that child who would be born. That's the reason why these verses are used so frequently at this time of year. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that is being spoken of here, even although this was around 800 years before the Lord was born. The Old Testament prophets knew that Christ was coming, knew that the Messiah was coming, and they wrote, they even wrote about the town in which he would be born. and they wrote about the name that he would be given. Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ has many names attributed to him in the Bible, as I'm sure we all know. But one of them is wonderful. I accept that he does not usually get called this as a first name because the angel told Mary to call him Jesus, thou shalt call his name Jesus, because that means saviour or deliverer. Call his name Jesus because he'll save his people from their sins. So he was to be called Jesus.

Nevertheless, one of Christ's names is wonderful and well it suits him because he did many wonderful things for us. One of those wonderful things, and I suppose it's the first one that we come to when we're thinking about this time of year, one of those wonderful things that the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us is to take our humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ, let us never forget, is the eternal God. And we're going to see that in some of these other names that we will think about in the coming weeks. He is the eternal God. He was a spirit. God is a spirit. As the Father is a spirit and the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost is a spirit. But the Lord Jesus Christ took our humanity. He took our nature. He took our flesh and blood. And he united himself to us in every way. With this one exception, he was without sin. The Lord Jesus Christ joined himself to our humanity in every way except one, he was without sin. No child has ever been born without sin except the Lord Jesus himself. And that in itself is a wonderful thing.

In taking our human nature, Christ took it from conception, from infancy, and he grew up in this world from being a child to becoming a man. And this was always God's plan for the salvation of his people, all the way from the ordaining or ordering of the covenant of grace. So the book of Hebrews tells us that God the Father prepared a body for the Lord Jesus. And he was born in that body as a child. and as a son of his mother Mary. So unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. He was born as a child and he was given as a son to his mother Mary. But he was not the son of Joseph. A virgin conceived and brought forth her son. And the angel told Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Not the son of Joseph, but the Son of God, whose name was wonderful.

but let you and me be a little bit humble here. We know the Lord Jesus is wonderful, but it is impossible for us to discover how wonderful he is. It is impossible for us to know the extent or the nature of his excellence. He is infinitely wonderful. and he transcends our ability to comprehend how deep and how wide and how high and how vast the wonders of his person are. Our wonderful saviour is still the infinite God and he is the perfect man. He is God and man in one person. And that is wonderful beyond our comprehension. He is pure, perfect and holy. His incarnation is wonderful. His birth, his life and ministry are all wonderful. His miracles, his death, his resurrection, his ascension are all wonderful beyond our comprehension. or understanding.

I want to say this to you. Don't ever be intimidated if someone mocks you and says, how do you explain that then? And you think to yourself, I can't explain that. I don't know how to explain that. I can't explain that. I can't explain the wonder of Jesus, nor can you. That is why faith is so important.

But the wonders of our Lord Jesus Christ don't end there. Our Saviour is right now alive. And in his earthly body, he is in heaven, seated at his father's right hand, but still busy representing us and interceding for us his church in glory.

And then there are all the wonders of redemption. Is it not wonderful that the Lord Jesus took our sin in his own body? That he accomplished our salvation by being made sin for us when it was impossible for him as God to sin himself. I can't explain that either. And then what of the wonders of God's love and grace, mercy and peace being given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ? How is it possible that every believer is united to Christ so to be part of his mystical body? Isn't that wonderful? Is it not wonderful that he saves us by his grace and makes us a new creation? Gives us his own faith and forgives us each time we sin and fall short of his wonderful righteousness and glory.

It is true what the psalmist says about this matter. When it comes to thinking about the wonders of our wonderful saviour, Jesus Christ, the psalmist says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it.

So here are a few applications for you and me to take from this name that is given to the Lord Jesus Christ of wonderful. And I just want to return to that need for humility. Humility in us being humble before the wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ is most suitable and essential. It is essential that we are humble when we come to think about the Lord Jesus Christ. His very name of wonderful ought to suggest to us that he is far above us. And we ought to be mindful of His glory and His power when we think of Him and when we come to speak of Him. How despicable that people should mock the Lord Jesus Christ and take in vain the wonderful name of our wonderful Saviour. How presumptuous that they deny his words, that they mock his claims and ridicule his accomplishments as if they knew better than God. As if they, who can't add a centimetre to their height, and are ignorant of so many natural things in this world, imagine that they know better than God who made the world and God who made them. Some people say, I won't believe what I don't understand, as if they are the final authority on truth, when they're only worms before the glory of our wonderful God and Saviour. Let us not fall into that trap.

But here's something else. Christ's wonder doesn't mean that he is inaccessible or that he is out of our reach. This is another aspect of Jesus who is called wonderful. He came to us when we never could reach Him. That is what Isaiah is saying here in Isaiah 9, verse 6. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. What is wonderful is that Christ came to us, His beloved people, His church. He came into this world to minister and to die for us. He reveals himself to us and gave himself for us while we were in our sin and deserving of nothing but judgment. He who is transcendent, has crossed the gulf between us and made himself known to us. He humbled himself to come to us. How dare we act proudly in his presence?

I want you to understand this. The Lord Jesus Christ is not everyone's saviour. I hope he is yours. But we'll only ever know Him as Saviour if we come to Him by faith and trust in the wonderful Saviour who has done wonderful things. The Lord Jesus Christ came to us and we can go to Him by asking forgiveness for our sins and trusting in the success of His death in our place. And finally, here's my last point. If you do trust in Christ, here is something else that you should know. He makes us wonderful too. Christ's love and grace to sinners, like us, makes us a wonder to ourselves. He cleanses us. He lifts us out of the dirt of sin. What the Old Testament says, it says He lifts us out of the miry clay, out of the dirt of sin. He sets our feet on a solid rock and He, our wonderful Saviour, is the foundation of our lives.

He transforms our hearts, our soul, our mind, our very nature. He makes us new. We call that conversion. And whenever the Lord Jesus makes something, He makes it wonderful, just like Himself. We have to be wonderful because we have to be fit for heaven. We have to be fit for God's presence, fit to stand amongst the angels in glory, surrounding the throne of the eternal God.

And that is a wonderful place, full of wonderful sights and sounds and smells. and our wonderful saviour came to make his church fit for heaven. And that is what he has done. So, if you hear someone reading this little passage over this Christmas season, I want you to think about what it means when we see the Lord Jesus, the child who was given, the son who was born, is called wonderful. He is our wonderful God, our wonderful saviour, and a wonderful friend to those he loves and who love him.

Next week, God willing, we'll think about why Christ's name is also counsellor. Amen.