My text this evening is Isaiah
chapter nine and verse six. And I take my text for my subject. Isaiah nine and verse six. His name shall be called wonderful. His name shall be called wonderful. This word translated in our English
Bible is wonderful. It might be translated miraculous,
marvelous, or distinguished. The Lord Jesus might well be
called miraculous because everything about him and everything done
by him is miraculous. He only does wonders. Everything
he is and everything he does is miraculous. His name certainly
might well have been called marvelous. He is the marvelous one of the
universe. Angels and men marvel at him. Heaven and hell marvel at him. Christ is the marvel of time
and the marvel of eternity. Oh, how we marvel at Him. And
our Savior might well bear the name distinguished, for there's
none like Him, none to be compared to Him. He's separate from and
distinguished from all others. He is sanctified above all others. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips,
the psalmist says. Christ Jesus is the chief among
10,000. altogether lovely. But it will
be plenty sufficient for us to stick with just the translation
given to us in our King James translation. His name shall be
called wonderful. That text looks into the future,
even into eternity, as the prophet of God says not this was his
name, or this shall be his name. He says his name shall be called
wonderful. It is at this time called wonderful
by all who believe him. Unto you, therefore, who believe
he is precious, and it shall ever be called wonderful by his
saints. As long as angels and men surround
the throne of the Lamb in heaven's glory, we shall unceasingly call
the Son of God by his right and proper name Wonderful. His name
shall be called Wonderful. Now this is what I want to say
this evening, and I'll say it in three or four ways, but this
is what I want you to understand. Christ is wonderful. Christ is wonderful. And I use that word wonderful
in a way that it cannot be applied to anything or anyone but Him. He is singularly by Himself wonderful. Look at him from any point of
view, at any time, in any place, under any circumstance, and you
will see that he bears this name well. His name is always wonderful. First, look over all that you
can of the past. You're wise to look over the
past, to remember the past. to make notations of things in
the past. Look over all that you can of
the past and understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is called
wonderful because of everything he has done. Everything. The bright things
and the dark things. the things pleasant to us, and
the things that seem painful to us. His goings forth, the
prophet said, have been from old, even from everlasting. The Lord Jesus appeared to Moses
and he said, my name is I am. I am he who is, he who was, and
he who is to come. That's how he described himself
to John. No one will ever know the wonder of Christ's person
and work if he doesn't begin his understanding, his consideration
of Christ and his work in eternity. Now, you and I simply can't grasp
eternity. I keep saying that because I
hope eventually I will hear it and you will too. God stoops
to use human terms and words that we can get some understanding
of to describe himself. Eternity has neither beginning
nor end. The Lord Jesus, however, is described
as that Great Eternal One, who in the beginning was with God,
and that One who was God, God the Son, Jesus Christ our Mediator,
who before the world began, stepped forth as our surety and step
forth to be our mediator and our substitute. His humanity
did not begin until he was conceived in the virgin's womb. But before
the world was, before ever Adam was created in his image in the
garden, Christ stood as the God-man mediator, our substitute and
our redeemer. Turn to 1 John 1. We're gonna
look at a little scripture tonight. 1 John 1. The Lord Jesus is wonderful
in his great majesty as God, the God-man, our Savior. 1 John chapter 1. That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father. We've seen Him with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the
Word of life. For the life was manifested,
and we've seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal
life. eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested unto us. Our King James translator
has done a marvelous thing. The word eternal and the word
everlasting is the same word in the original text, but it's
translated at various times eternal and everlasting and with good
reason. In every place where you see
the word eternal, as it refers to eternal life, in every place
in the New Testament, it's talking about Christ, our eternal life. Eternal life. How long have I
had eternal life? For as long as he has been my
eternal life. wherever the word is translated
everlasting life, it speaks of our experience of that eternal
life, of God giving us life, putting life in us. Here it is
talking about Him who is that eternal life, that eternal life. You see, eternal life is not
just talking about the duration of life. It's not talking about
the beginning or the longevity of life. It's talking about a
distinct life. Eternal life is Jesus Christ
Himself, which was with the Father and was manifested, brought to
light to us. That which we have seen and heard,
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
His Son, Jesus Christ. This One, who is God the Eternal
One. This one who is the God-man,
our mediator, this one who is eternal life, who is our life,
is wonderful in his everlasting suretyship for us. I've already
hinted at it. The apostle tells us in Hebrews
7.22 that Christ is the mediator, the surety of a better covenant. He is the surety of an everlasting
covenant. The covenant that the triune
Jehovah made with God the Son, our mediator, as the God-man,
our surety. And in that everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things insure, all our salvation was both promised
and accomplished. Accomplished by the slaying of
Christ the lamb from the foundation of the world Accomplished by
Jesus Christ when he stood forth to be our surety had already
finished the work and we were accepted in the beloved and Promised
that which we should experience in time by God's grace and in
that salvation in that salvation I haven't yet begun to get my
mind around this, let alone preach it like it ought to be. In the
salvation of our souls, in the salvation of God's elect, all
of the glory of God is wrapped up with it. All the
knowledge and revelation of the glory of God is wrapped up in
the salvation of His people. all the purpose of God, all the
will of God, all the work of God, all the glory of God, everything,
everything. And the Lord God, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, trusted to our surety all the souls of his people,
all his will, all his purpose, all his glory, and he struck
heads with the Father, and the work was done. so that from eternity
the Lord God Almighty ceased to look to you, who He is, for
anything. He doesn't look to you for righteousness. He doesn't look to you for obedience.
He doesn't look to you for faith. He doesn't look to you for repentance. He doesn't look to you for dedication. He doesn't look to you for sanctification. He gives it in Christ the Lord
and he finds it in him for us. Christ Jesus is wonderful in
his marvelous incarnation. Turn over to Galatians chapter
four. Galatians the 4th chapter. I want you to see this. Verse 4, When the fullness of
time was come, God sent forth his Son, God sent him on an errand
of mercy, at the exact time ordered before the world began, made
of a woman, made under the law, made as a man under the law,
so that he must obey the law. He must fulfill the law. He must satisfy the law. He sent
him here for a purpose, to redeem them that were under the law. The Lord God sent His Son into
this world, and the Savior said, A body hast thou prepared me,
O God. A body by which he might obey
the law, satisfy the law, and thereby redeem us who were under
the law, by us out from under the curse of the law, by us out
of the hands of offended justice, by us to himself, that we, we
who are his redeemed ones, We whom he came here to save might
receive the adoption of sons. Now the adoption was done before
the world began. He adopted us in eternal election
and we receive experimentally the blessed adoption of sons
when he gives us the very nature of his son in the new birth.
And because you are sons, now watch this, not in order to make
you sons, Because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit
of his heart son into your hearts crying Abba father so that in
the new birth God comes in power of His Spirit and effectually
applies the redemption of Christ in your heart, sprinkling your
heart and mind from an evil conscience so that God causes you who believe
to know you're His. You received the testimony that
Enoch had before he was translated. He pleased God. Oh, how wonderful
for God to come to a helpless, hell-bent rebel
who could find no rest for his soul anywhere and speak peace
to his heart and tell you everything's all right, you please me. You
please me. How can God say that to Mark
Henson? Only in his song. This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Our Lord Jesus, in all
His life of obedience, was wonderful. Turn back to Romans chapter five.
Very familiar scripture, look at it. Romans five, verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. When Adam sinned, you sinned,
I sinned, the world sinned. Adam was created by God to be
a representative man. Adam was created by God to represent
the whole human race. We were all in the loins of our
father Adam. Now we know that because we're
told in verse 14 that he is the figure of him that was to come.
Paul tells us in verse 12, by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. And
then it begins a parenthetical statement that goes all the way
down to verse 18. Let's pick up there. Therefore,
therefore, since this is how we got in the mess we're in,
since we got in the mess we're in by the disobedience of one
man, by the sin of a representative man, therefore, As by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. All who are represented by Adam
died and were condemned in Adam. All who are represented in Christ
live and are justified in him. For as by one man's disobedience,
many, thee many who were in that one man were made sinners, so
by the obedience of one shall many, thee many in the man Christ
Jesus be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, Even
so might grace reign through righteousness. That is, through
the righteousness of God that Jesus Christ performed as our
substitute unto eternal life by Jesus Christ the Lord. And
certainly our substitute, our Savior, is wonderful in his accomplishments
as our Redeemer. He was made sin for us. redeemed us from the curse of
the law. When he bore in his body our
sins upon the cursed tree, when he was made sin for us, when
he cried, I am become vile, my transgressions, God has wreathed
and placed them on my neck. When he cried, thou knowest,
My guiltiness, oh God. Then he took the cup of God's
wrath and drank damnation dry, being justly punished for our
sins. And God Almighty says, that's
enough. I require no more. Justice is
satisfied. Righteousness is maintained.
Truth is established. Now God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. According as
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And this
he endured, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ. that we, God's elect, might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Our Lord Jesus, wonderful
in all these things, was then buried as our substitute. Buried,
burying our sin in his own body on the tree, he went to the tomb. as one who died under the just
guilt of God's wrath and long suffering all the terror of divine
justice. And then three days later. He
arose from the dead, triumphant over death, hell, and the grave,
having put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself, His resurrection
declares justice is satisfied. Iniquity is gone. By His sacrifice,
by His blood, the Lord Jesus Christ has removed our iniquities
from us. as far as the east is from the
west. As far as the east is from the
west. If you start out going west,
you can walk around the world, sail the seas, or if you want
to go faster, you can fly. As long as you're going west,
you're still going west. You haven't reached the East
yet, because there is no East Pole or West Pole, but rather
the Lord God uses an expression, an expression that is very common,
East from West, that's a great distance, but oh, what an expression. He's talking about an expression,
He's using an expression that talks about the infinite, complete
removal of sin. Oh, my soul, that's more than
any mind can grasp. That's more than any theologian
can explain. But the Lord God has removed,
destroyed, put away our sins by the sacrifice of his darling
son so that they are no more. They're gone. They're gone. Did
you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away. So far removed from us that God
himself can't find them. He laid them on his son. And yonder he sets in glory,
the king of glory. Who can enter in? He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lifted up his soul
into vanity. That's our Redeemer, but wait
a minute. He was made sin. How can He enter in? Because
He who was made sin put sin away, having fulfilled all righteousness.
And there sits in glory a man who has a clean heart, clean
hands, a pure heart, who never once lifted up his soul to vanity. Now listen to me. Listen to me. Mother Lindsay, in the knowledge
of all my sin, as I confess the corruption of my heart, the vileness
of my mind, the evil of my nature, and would hide nothing, I would
hide nothing from God, nothing. I wouldn't if I could. Sue, this
man who has no sin, this man who's nothing but sin, but has
no sin, shall enter into glory as one worthy to enter in, whose
hands are clean, whose heart is pure, who's never lifted up
his soul to vanity. For you see, I'm in him. And
all this he did and he is for me and for you who are his. And now the Lord God has given
him the highest seat in heaven, seated with his father at his
own right hand. And we who are his are made to
sit together with him in heavenly places. Second, our blessed Savior
is wonderful in all that He has been and all that He has done,
but He's wonderful in all that He is. Turn to Revelation chapter
5, Revelation 5. Behold the Lamb on His throne. in your mind's eye and in your
heart and soul, can you see him yonder in glory? Do you see the
throne on which he sits, the angels bowing before him? Can
you hear God's saints as they praise him? Now, I want you to
read this with me. It's very familiar to you, but I want you
to read it. They sang, verse nine, they sang a new song, saying,
thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof.
And here's the reason you're worthy, because thou was slain
and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred
and tongue and people and nation, and has made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And behold,
I beheld and I heard a voice of many angels round about the
throne. and beast and the elders. And the number of them was 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. And this is what they
said, worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and
riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And I read that again this afternoon. And then back in the office,
brother Larry Brown read Our Lord's words in Proverbs chapter
eight, where he who is wisdom speaks. And look what we just
read, verse 12. The saints and angels around
the throne look at Christ, God, the Son, the Lamb of God, and
says, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power. How
can he who is omnipotence receive power? and riches, how can he
who possesses all things receive riches? And wisdom, how can he
who says, I am wisdom, who is made of God and to us wisdom,
how can he receive wisdom? And strength, how can he receive
strength and honor and glory and blessing? Only one way. We can ascribe it to him, but
we can't give it to him. We can praise him for it, but
we can't give it to him. but the triune Jehovah has put
in him all these things because of his accomplishments as our
mediator. And every creature which is in
heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in
the sea and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing and honor
and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne.
I love that word, sitteth. Sitteth, I would do God, I could
learn something about that. He sits in the ease and serenity
of absolute sovereignty. He sits undisturbed, unaffected,
unmoved by anything. He sitteth on the throne, the
throne of the universe and to him that sitteth on the throne
and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said,
amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. There he sits
as our forerunner. The forerunner, he has gone to
glory to prepare a place for us. And he said, if I go and
prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto
myself that where I am there you may be also. There he sits
as our great high priest, that one who took a sacrifice to God
that God accepted. by which the veil was rent into
from top to bottom. And God looks on this high priest
and now bid sinners come to him from everywhere. And this great
high priest who sits in heaven is able by virtue of his obedience
unto death. by virtue of the power given
to him, able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. There he sits, monarch of the
universe. That one to whom the Lord God
has given all power, that he should give eternal life to as
many as God in covenant mercy has given him before the world
was. All power. all authority, all
might, all power. And there he sits as our advocate
in heaven, our advocate. We sometimes get the idea that
he is always offering arguments about how God should do things,
why God should do things. That's not the case at all. Our
Savior makes intercession for us, this one who knows the mind
of the Spirit, and intercedes for us. He intercedes for us
at the Father's hand for the non-imputation of sin. He intercedes
for us at the Father's right hand for everlasting acceptance. He intercedes for us at the Father's
right hand for all the blessings of goodness and mercy that follow
us all the days of our lives, and this is how he does it. He just shows the sacrifice.
and the Father hears him pray, he cannot turn away the presence
of his Son. With regard to the future, oh,
how wonderful our Savior shall be. I think a lot, I try to think
all the time about His Second Coming. Soon He shall appear. I want to live, oh God give me
grace to live every day and every moment of the day on the tiptoe
of faith looking for Christ to appear. Behold He cometh, Revelation
1-7. Behold He cometh. Isn't that
a good word? That doesn't mean he's going
to come out yonder sometime in the future. That means, Merle,
he's on his way for us now. Behold, he cometh. Behold, he
cometh. Well, preacher, he's been gone
over 2,000 years. Where's the promise of his coming?
I've been going a lot of time away from my wife and my family
a lot longer than two days. And I don't think either my wife
or daughter or now my son-in-law and grandchildren ever doubted
that I planned to come back. And I'd gone a lot longer than
two days. He'd just been gone two days, Mark. One day with
him's a thousand years. He'd just been gone two days.
Behold, he cometh. He's been on his way back ever
since he left. And when he shall appear, every
eye shall see him. I have to acknowledge I have
no idea what that's talking about in a physical, natural sense. I do not have the slightest hint
of a notion that somehow or another everybody at one time is going
to see this enormous man standing on the earth. He's going to be
big enough that everybody can see him. Not at all. But when He comes, instantly,
when He appears, everybody's gonna know who He is. See that
all His claims are true. All the Word of God is true.
All His people will see Him. See Him as He is. And we'll be
like Him when we see Him as He is. and they also which pierced
him shall see him. They too shall screech like the terrified souls they shall
be." Oh my God, it's true. He's the Christ. Oh my God, what
have I done? I've nailed him to the curse
tree. They shall see him. And then, we which are alive
and remain, the apostle says, will not prevent, will not go
before, will not precede the saints of God whose bodies are
sleeping in the earth. But those who sleep, they shall
first rise from the grave. What a day that's gonna be. When
the Lord Jesus comes, you and I are gonna stand here and watch
folks rise up out of the graves. And then we shall be changed
in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, raised up forever to
be with the Lord. And Christ will return to this
earth with all his saints, 10,000 of his saints, and he will consume
this earth. and all the wicked with the brightness
of his coming and make all things new all at once. Our Lord Jesus
will come again and at last sit in judgment. I was talking to
a pastor friend I've never met yet, but we corresponded and
chatted some earlier this week. judgment seat and the great white
throne judgment. People talk about distinguishing
those things. And most time fellows act like
they know a whole lot more about it than is revealed. I find it
strange how many can get things out of Scripture. I remember
one time Brother Watson Dufour at Manstead, West Virginia he
and I had listened to a sermon by a young fellow who had studied
it a lot and got a lot of detail and he had read all the theology
books and the history books and the commentaries. And he Oh,
it was impressive. And he got done, and Brother
Watson said, I'm not sure that Brother Paul put in that verse
everything he got out of it. And that's often the case. But the fact is, the fact is,
nobody knows a great deal about future things. Only facts that
are revealed. Only facts that are revealed.
I can see no distinction in Scripture between what's called the judgment
seat of Christ the great white throne judgment. The Father has
committed all judgment to the Son. And when men stand before
the Son of God in judgment, every man shall give account of the
things done on this earth, and every man shall be rewarded in
that great day for all that he has done according to the books
opened by God." Now, I know this is going to be shocking to some
folks, but God, I'm talking about God now, not, not an old man
upstairs. God doesn't need to write things
down to remember them. Is that shocking? Not literal
books. No, not, not literal ledgers,
but by the record of God, by the record of God, but what you've
done, you're going to meet God. and be judged by God for what
you've done, for what you've done. And those whose names are
not found written in the book of life are gonna be cast into
hell forever. But these standing on his right
hand, he will say to them, come, ye blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. He'll say, you've done good.
You've been righteous. Your hands have been clean. You've
never lifted up your heart to that, that, that. You've perfectly
obeyed me in everything. My brother taught it. You know
better than that. Oh, no, that's what I know. God's
gonna search for Jacob's sin. Hang on here before I send you
to hell. Hang on, Satan, you accuse of hell. I wanna show
you something. Find me any sin. in this book of all the knowledge
of God, of Don Fortner's. And there shall be none. Jeremiah
50, verse 20. None, none. So that in that great
day, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great Redeemer, will bring us
into glory and we shall be presented faultless before the presence
of His glory, holy, unblameable, unreprovable, as chaste virgins
in His sight. And we shall see His face. Now my experience can't be weighed with God's Word.
My experience has no authority, no voice of I don't pretend that
it does. But let me tell you one more
thing. In all my experience, these past
50 years, in everything I've learned of
him, in everything I know of him, everything, His name is rightly called Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. In all His grace,
in all His mercy, in all His love, in all His chastisement,
in all His affliction, in all the sorrow He brings, in all
the darkness He brings, in all the light He brings, all the
peace He gives, wonderful, wonderful. Wonderful when He briefly leads
me to myself and forces me again to see how
frail, how sinful, how corrupt I am. wonderful when He visits
me again in grace and restores my soul. Wonderful, wonderful
in all He reveals and teaches. Wonderful in everything He shows
me in this book. I'll tell you something I look
upon as a good indication of whether or not I have a proper
understanding of something written in this book. Does it suddenly seize me as
a new fact I've learned, or does it seize me as a new revelation
of the wonder of God my Savior? If it causes me to bow to God
in worship, then I expect that's just exactly what God intended.
If it doesn't, I've just been confused. His name shall be called
wonderful. And when at last we stand with
Christ in glory, looking over all life's marvelous
story. Oh, what a story is going to
be told. What a story is going to be told. We shall shout to
His praise. He hath done all things well. His name is wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful, wonderful. Amen.