Well I want you to come back
with me to Isaiah, we read Isaiah chapter 7 earlier on, we're going
through a series of messages in Isaiah, I don't think that
we'll continue right the way through to the end without a
break, otherwise it might seem like we're stuck in a rut, but
we don't want to do that. But we come to chapter 7 today
and I've called this message a sign from the Lord because
it contains one of the best known verses in scripture, especially
thought of as a Christmas verse that is quoted again and again
at Christmas, that's verse 14, a virgin shall conceive and bear
a son and shall call his name Immanuel. But I want to set this
verse, this sign from the Lord in the context of the whole chapter
of Isaiah chapter 7 and remind you first of all that In chapter
6, last week, we saw God's prophet shown a vision of the Lord. Remember, this was the man who
was God's prophet. He was God's mouthpiece. In the
first five chapters, he'd spoken various messages from God to
the people of his day. But do you know, Isaiah still
needed a vision of the Lord. He still had to see God, and
he had a very special vision, as we know. He saw the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation of God, for no
man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who
is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him, He has made
Him known. If you would look at God the
Father, no man shall see Me and live. Show us the Father, said
Philip, and that will suffice us. Jesus said to Philip, Philip,
have I been so long with you, and yet you have not seen Me,
you have not known Me. He who has seen Me, This is a
man speaking. He who has seen me has seen the
Father, has seen the essence of the God, because in him, Colossians
tells us, Paul writing in Colossians tells us that in him, in the
man, Christ Jesus, dwells the fullness of the Godhead, bodily. If you would see God, you must
look to Jesus Christ. you must look to Him and nowhere
else. And Isaiah saw a vision in the
temple of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that from John chapter
12. This spake Isaiah when he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke
of Him. God must speak. You see, I can
speak, any other preacher can speak to you words of truth,
and you can hear those words of truth, and they can go in
through ear gate, and they can get into the brain, and they
can make you understand things, but unless God by His Spirit
comes and speaks in the innermost being, speaks in the soul. Do you know what God the Holy
Spirit does? He makes, you ask any military
commander and he will tell you he would rather have a handful
of genuine volunteers any day compared with a whole troop of
pressed men. And the Holy Spirit comes and
he makes volunteers. He makes, says Psalm 110 verse
3, his people, what are they? Volunteers, willing in the day
of his power. He must come. We need this revelation
from God. This is so important. Religion
is not a matter of mechanical, go through these hoops, jump
through these hoops, tick all of these boxes, and you will
be blessed of God. No. The Lord must give you a
revelation of himself in your heart. Because with that revelation
of God comes the power to convict. You know what the hymn says?
I know I keep quoting it. It's worth quoting. Grind it
into your mind. A sinner is a sacred thing. The world and religion would
say a sinner is a terrible thing. No, a sinner is a sacred thing,
because everybody's a sinner, but very, very few people know
and acknowledge it. But only those who truly have
been made conscious of it by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost
has made him so, shown him that he's a sinner. And how has he
shown him he's a sinner? He's shown him what God is like,
in the beauty of holiness, in the purity of his being. And
seeing God like that, Isaiah was convicted. Woe is me, he
said in verse 5 of the previous chapter. He was convicted of
his sin. And then immediately redemption
was applied. This is how God works. Conviction. Redemption applied. Submission
to the revealed truth of God. Oh, I don't like that kind of
thing. Well, will you also go away? said many who claimed to
be His disciples in John 6, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life, said Peter. There's nowhere else we can go.
The truth of God declared in the latter part of chapter 6
of Isaiah is the truth of sovereign grace. It's the truth of God
being merciful to whom He will be merciful, and having compassion
upon whom He will. And you say that's not fair.
This is God. who is speaking. This is God
who has revealed these things. Who are you, says Paul in Romans
9, to say to God, why have you made me thus? You're like the
piece of clay. Is it not in the hands of God to make of the same
lump of clay one vessel to honour and another to dishonour? He
is God, he can do what he will. Who are you to accuse him of
injustice? No. What it says there in the
latter part of chapter six of Isaiah, is that God is merciful
to whom he will, and whom he will, as he said to Pharaoh,
whom he will, he hardens. And so then we come, with that
as the background, Isaiah having had this vision of God, we come
to Isaiah seven. And you know, there are various
verses that I contemplated taking as just the short text for an
entire message, and I could well have done that, but I felt very
much that the whole chapter is a summary, is a concise summary
of the whole message of Scripture. Because in it, there's everything.
There's world politics. There's conflict. There's unbelief. There's rebellion against God.
There's Satan's intentions uncovered. There's God's promise and kingdom
assured. The message of the entire book
The message of the entire book of Scripture, the history of
the world which is in here, is the history of redemption. It's
the history of God redeeming his people from their sins. It's
the message of what I gave the title of my revelation book,
God's Kingdom Triumphant. That God's kingdom is triumphant,
because you see, we live in this present world, we live in the
kingdom of Satan. This is the world that we, in
the flesh, move around in. It's the kingdom of Satan. It's
the kingdom of Antichrist. It's the philosophy of the false
prophet, the beast and the false prophet. This is the world that
we live in. I do not need to make the case for that. It is
patently obvious to anybody who has any spiritual insight and
any of the truth from God at all. We live in the world of
the kingdom of Satan and Antichrist. Yet, The message of this book
is that God's kingdom is triumphant, will be triumphant. Now, is it
relevant to you and to me? Is this chapter written 2,700
plus years ago? Is it relevant to us? Look at
us here, those of you out on the internet. Some of you are
getting on in years, I don't think you'll mind me saying that.
You're getting old. You're conscious of getting old. You're conscious
of the fact that there may not be many years left. This is very
relevant to you. Others of you are very young.
Others of you are just understanding the way things go around. It's
relevant to you as well. To have this understanding, oh,
to come to a knowledge as a child, as a young person, to come to
a knowledge, of the way the God of the universe has put this
world together, upholds all things, and will accomplish His eternal
purposes, and to live in the light and the good of that. Oh,
I tell you, to believe that, to trust Him. Do you know what
this chapter says? That is to be established. Do
you not want to be established for life? I don't care what you
do. You boys, I don't care what you
do. I don't care whether you become genius scientists, or
great philosophers, or wonderful pianists, or whatever. I don't
care what you do. But above all, I do care this,
that you know the living God who has made all things, and
that you believe the gospel of His grace. Because you'd be established. It says here in his word, you
will be established. History happens and affects us
all, doesn't it? All the time we read, we watch
the news, we read the news. History happens and affects us
all, but do you know it doesn't just happen. It is all the outworking. Now, I wonder if you can remember
when we were studying the book of Revelation. And we got to
chapter 5 of Revelation, and there was a seven-sealed scroll. There was a scroll of writing
in the hand of the one in the midst of the throne of God, in
the hand of God. And the hand was open with the
seal on it, and it was sealed with seven seals. That was his
plan for the establishment of his unrivaled kingdom of peace
and righteousness. That was what results in the
outworking of world history. And nothing is more important
than this. So then, I want you to see in
this chapter, first of all, in the first two verses, an unbelieving
alliance. An alliance of people... Now,
you say, you know, I feel so alone. I'm the only one in my
class at school or my place of work who has this philosophy
that I've got. That's absolutely right. Jesus
said it's a narrow way. Fear not, little flock. Knowing
the truth is the most precious thing, but you're going to have
a lonely journey. This is why times like this are
good. Fellowship. Fellowship together. Mutual encouragement.
You out on the internet, together. Some of us, we're separated by
thousands of miles. I find it absolutely phenomenal. We're separated by hours and
hours of time. There's people up in what to
them is kind of the early hours of the morning. It's amazing
how this is bringing us together. But we need this. We need encouragement
and fellowship together in the things of the purposes of God.
Here we see an unbelieving alliance, because the world around us is
largely unbelieving. This happened about 15 or 16
years after chapter 6 happened, the account of chapter 7, about
15 or 16 years later. And the king Ahaz in Judah, was
the grandson of Uzziah. Do you remember in chapter 6
verse 1, in the year that Uzziah died was when Isaiah had his
vision of God in the temple? Well this is his grandson, the
son of Jotham. the son of Uzziah. The grandson
of Uzziah is Ahaz. And we know from 2 Kings, chapters
15 and 16, that he was about the most wicked king of Judah
that there was. He was a terrible, terrible man.
He did dreadful things. He brought about all sorts of
departure from the true ways of the living God. He reigned
from 732 to 716 before Christ came. Now, you want to know how long
ago is that? Well, as I said, 2,720 years, 2,710 years, something
like that, thereabouts. How long is that? Well, think
about it. From the time of Christ, back
to the time of Ahaz and Isaiah, is like us today looking back
to about the year 1300. That's before Henry VIII. It's a long time. a long time. And this king was wicked, and
unbelieving, and rebellious, and idolatrous. He did all the
things that God's Word said he shouldn't do. And the kingdom
of Israel, which had been united under King David and then his
son King Solomon, under Solomon's son the kingdom was divided into
the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the south, round Jerusalem,
and the ten tribes of the rest in the north, in what later became
known as Samaria. And in this chapter they're known
as Ephraim, which was one of the sons of Joseph. And they're
also known as Samaria. And what they did that was wrong,
the kings of Israel, the people of Israel in the north, was they
went, you'll read it again and again in the Old Testament, they
went in the sins of Jeroboam. And what were those sins? I'll
put it in a nutshell. Jeroboam said to the people,
You don't need to go to Jerusalem, to the temple, to worship God.
They're off on their own. We'll do our own thing. We'll
invent our own religion here. We'll have our own way of coming
to God. And do you know what that was like saying? You don't
need to come to God by Christ. You can come in your own way,
in your own strength. And God condemned them for it.
because you cannot. That was the sins of Jeroboam,
universally condemned throughout the Old Testament. And they became
the Samaritans because they became intermingled with the Assyrians,
and they became a mongrel race, and they were cast off before
Judah, which later was cast off itself for its rejection of Christ. But they became allied with a
country called Syria. Have you heard of a country called
Syria? Look at the news today. There's barely a day goes by
when the country of Syria is not in the news. Syria is there
today, and it's capital. Did you read about the capital
of Syria in this chapter? Where's the capital of Syria?
Anybody who knows their geography will tell me it's Damascus. Oh,
guess what? Verse 8, the head of Syria is
Damascus, and the head of Damascus is... You see, it's so relevant,
it's still there, and that alliance of the people in the north, the
Samaritans, Ephraim, were joined up with the Syrians, who we read
about in the news today, and their intention was to destroy
Judah as an independent kingdom and put their own ruler in. Now,
why did they want to do that? Now, this is where we start to
see the purposes of God unfolding. If you turn back, and you don't
need to, but I'll turn back for you to Genesis chapter 49, in
Genesis chapter 49 and verse 8, This is the account where Jacob
is prophesying about what would become of his sons. You know
he had 12 sons, and he's prophesying what would become about them.
He's in Egypt, he's about to die, and he's prophesying about
what would become of them. And he gets to Judah, verse 8.
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall
be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp. From
the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched
as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? Listen,
the scepter, the symbol of power, shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. Shiloh is Christ. Until the Messiah,
until the promised one, the messenger of the covenant, until he shall
come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. That
was a prophecy that through Judah would come the promised Messiah,
who would save his people from their sins, who would cause it
that God's justice should be perfectly satisfied, and yet
God should remain just in justifying sinners. It was through him,
the promised seed. Genesis chapter 3, as soon as
Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden into sin, God promised
that the seed of the woman would come, and in the process of having
his heel bruised by the servant, he would crush the serpent's
head, the devil's head, in accomplishing his purpose of saving his people
from their sins. It's pointing to the pivot point
of human history. The pivot point of human history?
When Christ, the Messiah, came into the world. Revelation 12
verse 4, chapter 12 of Revelation, is a picture of a woman which
represents the church. and she is great with child,
she's pregnant, she's about to give birth. It's a picture of
the Old Testament church which is going to bring forth the promised
seed, the promised Messiah. And the dragon, in verse 4 of
chapter 12 of Revelation, which is the devil, the dragon stood
before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour
her child as soon as it was born. The purpose of Satan is to prevent,
is to stop God's purposes of grace being implemented. His
purpose is to stop that child coming into the world. His purpose
is to stop redemption being accomplished by the Messiah that God has promised,
the messenger of the covenant. Syria Northern Israel, Ephraim,
Samaria, call them what you will, they had no idea that their hostility
to Judah was the outworking of Satan's efforts to prevent Messiah
coming, but it was. Just like Pharaoh probably had
no idea that when he ordered that all the young male children
of the Hebrews under two years old should be killed, he probably
had no idea that he was implementing Satan's purposes, because it
was from those people that the promised seed, who would be the
redeemer of his people, would come. And Ahaz heard the house
of David. Ahaz, although he was wicked,
he was the king of Judah, which was where the promise Messiah
would come from, he heard and he was terrified. And so then
we see a promise from God in verses 3 to 9. And we read these
verses earlier, so I won't read them again now. But God speaks. The Lord said to Isaiah, go forth
now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shir Jashub thy son, at the end of
the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fullest
field. God told him to go to a specific place and meet this
wicked king Ahaz, who was terrified because of Syria and the northern
kingdoms coming to try to destroy him, and God sends his messenger
to him. God speaks to man through his
prophet. That is always what he does.
God speaks to man through his prophet. Who are his prophets
today? His preachers. His anointed preachers. His burdened
preachers. As the Levites used to be burdened
with the weight of the Ark of the Covenant, which is a symbol
of the Gospel. and they carried it on their shoulders, and they
and only they could do it because God had said it must be them.
He burdens those that he's laid on the hearts, the message of
the gospel of grace, his preachers, with a message and they must
speak it. They must say, thus says the
Lord. And people all around say, I can't hear you God. I can't
hear you God. Do you know why? because you
will not listen to his anointed spokesman. If you say, I can't
hear what God says, you're not listening to his anointed spokesman. Jesus said, my sheep hear my
voice and they follow me and they won't listen to a hireling,
they'll go the other way. Oh, I pray, my prayer whenever
I preach is that you who listen will hear the good shepherd's
voice, that you will hear, you will see something, all preachers
truly, believe this, true preachers, there's treasure in very earthen
vessels. This is a very earthen vessel.
Everyone else who preaches will tell you they're exactly the
same. In me, that is in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. I'm
as corrupt as anybody else in my flesh. Yet God has put the
treasure of the gospel of grace in men whom he has equipped and
anointed to proclaim to this fallen generation for the calling
out of his people. He has a people whom he will
call out, please God, by the foolishness of preaching, to
save those who believe. And he says to him, take your
little boy. No, he's going on a dangerous
mission, he's meeting this horrible king, who might well have him
executed for daring to speak to him. He says, Take your little
boy, Shir Jashub, that name. Do you know in scripture all
names are very important. Shir Jashub means the remnant
shall return. Because the meaning of that little
boy's name is really the message from God. The elect remnant the
people that God is determined to save shall be saved. Don't be afraid of threats. Judah
shall not be destroyed until what Jacob said in Genesis 49
comes true, until Shiloh comes. The scepter, the power, civil
government shall not depart from Judah until he comes. And in verse 7, Whatever they
plan, this is what Isaiah said to Ahaz, whatever these northern
kingdoms and Syria plan, thus saith the Lord God, it shall
not stand, neither shall it come to pass. Worldly powers are just
pawns, manipulated by Satan within the constraints placed on him
by God. Only, now, I want to refer you
back to Revelation 5 again. Only the lion of the tribe of
Judah is qualified to unloose the seals of the seven-sealed
scroll in the hand of God. Only the lion. Look, said the...
When nobody was found qualified to open the seven seals, the
elder said to John in Revelation 5, look at the lion of the tribe
of Judah. We read that, Genesis 49, the
lion of the tribe of Judah. Look there, the descendant of
Judah, the one who will come from God in the line of Judah,
the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is qualified. But how is he
qualified? He looked and he didn't see a
lion. What did he see in the midst of the throne of God? He
saw a lamb as it had been slain. The lion of the tribe of Judah,
in the capacity of a lamb that had been slain, is qualified. Why? Because only as a lamb that
was slain is the justice of God satisfied in the salvation of
sinners. and therefore he can implement
the plan of God for the establishment and the confirmation of his unrivaled
kingdom of peace and righteousness. And the heathen, the world around
us, the kingdom of Satan, they rage, as Psalm 2 says. Why does
the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing against the Lord
and his anointed? They imagine a vain thing. But
as it says in Psalm 2 verse 4, he that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. God Serene. Sitting. He's serene. He shall laugh them to scorn.
The Lord shall have them in derision. They're futile plans. We get
frightened. We look at world power, oh I'm
frightened about what Vladimir Putin's thinking of doing. Oh
I'm frightened of this, that and the other. The Lord is sitting
on the throne of the heavens and he shall laugh them to scorn.
He shall have them in derision for nothing shall thwart his
purposes of establishing his kingdom, supreme above all else.
The counsel of the Lord, says Psalm 33 verse 11, the counsel
of the Lord, the wisdom of the Lord, the purposes of the Lord
standeth forever. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations. You cannot change him. He is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Whatever the wisdom
of this world does, says 1 Corinthians 3.19, the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh
the wise in their own craftiness, in their own plans to deceive
and be crafty. He confounds them. Does this
not teach us to fear God? Who are you afraid of? Who are
you afraid of in this world? Who are you afraid of? Answer
me, ask yourself, who are you afraid of? Jesus said to those
that were listening in Matthew 10 28, fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
him, God, which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. He's
the one to fear. Oh, the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. I've not decided that I'm going
to do you a favor, God, and come to you. No, that's Arminian lies. That's free-offer nonsense. No,
not at all. No. God is on the throne, and
He is the one that we should fear. And in fearing Him, He
will teach us the love and the grace and the mercy of the living
God. You see the nations all around,
as Isaiah 40 says, verse 15, the nations are as a drop of
a bucket and are counted. How much are they worth? They're
the small dust of the balance. They're the dust that's not worth
weighing. Psalm 37 says this, we often get distressed, don't
we? Psalm 37, verses 1 to 4, fret
not thyself because of evildoers. You believers, don't be afraid,
don't fret, don't be worried, neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity, for they soon shall be cut down like
the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do
good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt
be fed. No. The fear of the Lord. Do
you fear things in the world? Things going on in politics,
Brexit, North Korea, Putin's Russia, gangland violence in
London, lawlessness, injustice, ill health, infirmity, old age
approaching, all of these things? God, who is good and righteous
and just, reigns supreme. Don't fear these things. Fear
God, and in fearing, learn what it is to cry, Abba, Father, to
Him. Come to Him. Nothing can thwart
His eternal purposes of grace and salvation. Look at verse
8. The head of Syria is Damascus, the head of Damascus is resin.
You're worried stiff, you're trembling like the trees in the
wind. because of these kingdoms that have decided to come against
you. Within 65 years, Ephraim shall
be broken, that it be not a people. That's all it took. That great
big threat, and God confounded it and took it away. They became
a mongrel people, intermingled, cast off for idolatrous unbelief.
And likewise, everything we see in this world will be ended as
God's glorious kingdom is triumphant. And so we have the key to history
in verses 9 to 15. You see verse 9 it says, the
head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is Romalia's
son. That's all talking about those kingdoms in the north.
God had said what he was going to do. He's going to bring his
Messiah. He is going to bring his Messiah.
If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Will you believe God? Will you
rest your soul on his word? above all else? Will you live
your life trusting Him? Walk in the Spirit, and not according
to the flesh, with your heart set on eternal glory." But you
say, well, how is He going to make it? How is He going to make
eternal glory a reality for me, a sinner? How is He going to
do it? What sign will assure you? What will He say to you
that will assure you? Ask for one. Verse 12, for a
sign. Verse 11, ask thee a sign of
the Lord. This is what Isaiah says to Ahaz. Ask thee a sign
of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or
in the height above. But Ahaz, he said, I won't ask a sign,
neither will I tempt the Lord. You see, he's feigning, he's
pretending reverence for God, but he isn't really. He's an
unbelieving rebel. His unbelief is contemptible
to God. Verse 13, and he said, Hear ye
now, O house of David. All right, Ahaz, you won't listen,
but the rest of the house, you listen. Is it a small thing for
you to weary men? You weary men with your ways,
you weary men, you weary people like us, you weary people like
the prophet Isaiah, but will you also weary my God? How do
you weary God? You weary God by unbelief. by
grieving the Holy Spirit, by grieving that revelation that
He gives you of Himself. Will you weary God with your
unbelief? Verse 9, if you will not believe,
you shall not be established. What about you? What about you? Are you like Ahaz, with an appearance
of reverence, but really unbelieving? What an outrage! Just think for
a moment. What an outrage is unbelief! against the God of the universe.
What an outrage it is! You see... Those who don't believe,
they're proud of their unbelief. Oh, they've come to this superior
intellectual position where they don't believe in any of that
nonsense. I said a week or two back, didn't I, about how a copy
of the Daily Mirror had passed before my gaze and I just happened
to be flipping through the pages and saw a columnist talking about
how much longer are we going to believe in these idiotic fairy
tales, basically the Christian gospel. and, you know, from a
position of supposed intellectual superiority. That's not intellectual
superiority, that's foolishness. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. The fool has said in his heart,
no God for me. 1 John 5 verse 10, he that believeth
not God, listen, is calling God a liar. If you don't believe
God, you're calling God a liar. You think. Those who are close
to us, those who are our friends, those who are our acquaintances,
our colleagues. You don't believe God. Oh, well,
it's all right for you to hold that position. You're calling
God a liar. You're calling the God of the universe to whom you
are accountable. You are calling him a liar. Ask
yourself, do I believe God or do I believe what this world
tells me? Because if you believe what this world tells me, you're
believing what the beast and the false prophet are telling
you. the falsehood of Satan, concerning creation, concerning
how these things came into being, concerning how we continue, concerning
life and its essence, concerning righteousness, concerning sin,
and judgment, and eternity, and sovereignty, and heaven, and
hell. You're believing the lies of
Satan and not the truth of God. If you will not believe, you
will not be established. And remember what is said elsewhere. God says this, he that honoreth
me, him will I honor. Remember that, boys, remember
that. God says, he that honors me, and says, I don't care what
the rest of you are going to do, I'm going to believe God.
I'm going to honor God. I'm going to seek the worship
of God. God says, he that honors me, him will I honor. So what sign will assure you? Verse 14. Therefore the Lord
himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel." The Lord
there, you'll notice that throughout this passage the Lord is in small
capitals, L-O-R-D capitals, whereas here it's the Lord lowercase. It's because this is Adonai.
The name of the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Lord Jesus
Christ. The second person of the Trinity.
The manifestation of God. And despite Satan's intent to
destroy, God's Messiah shall come. And he shall be born of
a virgin. Why of a virgin? so that he be
sinless, without the sin of Adam, without human father, conceived
of the Holy Ghost, real flesh and blood, a real man, because
the price of sin is death, and the life is in the blood, and
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins,
real flesh and blood to save his people from their sins, and
whilst fully man, born of a virgin, He is also Emmanuel, which means
God with us. That man who walked this earth
is God with us. In him dwelt the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He was promised in Genesis 3
as the seed of the woman. He was promised to Abraham, your
seed in him, in the seed that shall come from you, shall be
those who will be saved, who will be as the stars of the sky
and the sand on the seashore for number, in that you will
be incapable of numbering them. He was in the family of Jacob,
the lion of the tribe of Judah. He was a prophet like Moses was
promised. He was a priest like Melchizedek. You know Melchizedek, that mysterious
person. who I believe is another manifestation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a king from David's house.
David's Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand till I make your enemies my footstool. A
king from David's house. A prince of peace. Solomon's
kingdom was a peaceful kingdom. He's a prince of peace. He was
to be born, as the scriptures say, in Bethlehem. A virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and we know from elsewhere in the
Old Testament it was to be in Bethlehem Ephrata of Judah. And
it was to happen before civil government ended in Judah. And
it was before the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. And when
Daniel prophesied four or five hundred years before Christ came,
it was in the middle of Daniel's seventieth week. You have to
interpret that, but it came exactly at the right time. We know it
did because people were looking for it then. What did he come
to do? To accomplish redemption by the
sacrifice of himself. And the Gospel accounts affirm
it. You know, all the early chapters
of the Gospels, talking apart from John, talking about, and
apart from Mark as well, but Matthew and Luke, talking about
when Christ was born, you know all, you can almost recite, you
know, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days
of Herod the King, there came wise, all those things. They
all testify that everything God said came true. Indeed, as Galatians
4 verse 4 says, when the fullness of the time, what fullness of
time? God's time. Exactly. In the midst
of history. In the midst of history. Read
Revelation. In the midst of history. Three
and a half, three and a half, seven, perfect. In the midst
of it all. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, subject to it. Why? To redeem, to pay the price
for the people who are under the law, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. This is the pivot of history.
God's eternal purpose of salvation from sin of triumph of his kingdom
over Satan's. Don't be alarmed by world history
and politics. Even don't be alarmed by the
ups and downs of everyday life. Verse 9, believe God and you
will surely be established. These are written, says John
20 verse 31, these are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through his name. Let me just finish very, very
quickly. Justice seemed to be done. The rest of the chapter
is God's promise of just judgment for sin and unbelief. Even on
Judah, once God's promised Messiah had come, He was going to hiss,
it says, he was going to whistle, you know, like you whistle for
a dog. He was going to whistle for the least likely instrument,
you'll see it there, read it for yourself, for the fly that
is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and the bee
that is in the land of Assyria. Unlikely instruments, Egypt and
Assyria, to accomplish justice on the sin of that land with
the captivity, but for the remnant, Sheer Jeshub, the son of Isaiah,
the remnant, that justice is satisfied in Immanuel. Verses
21 and 22. It shall come to pass in that
day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep, and
it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall
give he shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall everyone
eat that is left in the land. I believe that's talking about
butter and and honey of gospel grace, upon the elect of God,
who, despite judgment falling on all the rest, God has His
remnant, according to the election of grace. I urge you, read Revelation
again. Ask yourself, does this not exactly
agree with Isaiah 7? God's eternal purposes of salvation,
His triumphant kingdom accomplished by Christ, Satan's false kingdom
brought to its just end, Will you believe God and be established
in every aspect of your life? Amen.