Let's turn to the ninth chapter
of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 9. As the Lord will enable me, I
want to talk to you for a little while tonight about our great
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his great work of grace and
redemption for us and in us. I take the opening words of the
ninth chapter of Isaiah for my title, nevertheless, nevertheless. The prophet of God is here, just
finished giving us a word of judgment. And then he says, nevertheless,
and begins to describe for us the blessings of Christ coming.
I wanna show you from this chapter how that God's prophet Isaiah
750 years before the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world,
describes the coming of our Savior, both in His advent, as He first
came into the world in human flesh, and as He comes in His
grace, giving salvation to His redeemed ones. These words, Isaiah
was inspired to write by God the Holy Ghost, 750 years before it came to pass. And it came to pass exactly as
the prophet wrote them. The preceding chapter of Isaiah's
prophecy is all about judgment. The judgment of God, which Israel
and Judah had heaped upon themselves by their rebellion, by their
stiff necked, hard hearted, despising of God's light and God's revelation,
turning from God to the worship of idols while pretending to
worship God. But in wrath, God remembers mercy. Israel and Judah were destroyed. But they were destroyed as we
saw this morning, that the gospel might go forth into all the world
and that God's elect among the Gentiles might be called. Chapter eight closes with trouble
and darkness. Chapter nine shines with hope,
pointing our hearts to the blessedness of our Savior's coming. Though
the land of Judah would be overrun with the Assyrians, yet it would
not be destroyed until Emmanuel, the child of a virgin, was born
there, as we're told in chapter seven, verse 14. In fact, in
chapter eight, the very land itself is called Emmanuel's land. Now let's look at the first seven
verses of Isaiah chapter nine. The ninth chapter begins with
this word, nevertheless. I like that word, what a great
word it is. When the Lord God Almighty is
talking about well-deserved wrath and judgment, isn't it sweet
to hear him say nevertheless? When God says nevertheless, he's
saying there's still hope. I will yet be merciful and wrath,
I will remember mercy. The fact is in the worst of times,
God's people have from him a nevertheless with which to comfort themselves,
something to allay and balance their troubles in the works of
God in his providence. I rejoice to say with David when
I behave as a brute beast before God, nevertheless, I am still
with thee. Thou has told me by my right
hand. When my soul is smarting under
the chastening rod that I fully deserve, I'm thankful to remember
that my heavenly father declares, nevertheless, my loving kindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. Though like the nations of Israel,
we often provoke the Lord to wrath, it is written, Nevertheless,
he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry. Though
often we believe not. Shamefully, it must be confessed.
Often we believe not. We're more quick to unbelief
than we are to faith. Yet God's faithfulness still
declares, nevertheless, the foundation of God stand assured. the Lord
knoweth them that are his. And though we see things here
dissolving, all things around us coming to an end. Nevertheless,
we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a
new earth. I love to hear God say, nevertheless,
don't you? Nevertheless. Darkness is coming,
nevertheless, there's light. Judgment is coming, nevertheless,
there's mercy. Terrible, terrible times are
coming. Nevertheless, God is gracious still. God is performing
His work still. Now let's look here at Isaiah
9. Back here in Isaiah 9 verse 1, this word nevertheless was
a truly blessed word of hope to Israel and Judah. Isaiah was
inspired of God to inform the nation that though the judgment
he spoke of was sure, It was not the forerunner of greater
judgment, but rather the judgment he spoke of was the forerunner
of sure mercy. Look at verse what? Nevertheless,
the dimness shall not be such as it was in her vexation when
at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali. That's described in 2 Kings chapter
15, God's judgment of the land under Tiglath-Pileser. And afterward
did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea. That's
in chapter 17 of 2 Kings under Shalmaneser. Beyond Jordan in
the king of the nations, or in Galilee of the nations. The prophet
of God here has been describing God's judgments. God's judgments
which were to come upon apostate Israel. The nation would be engulfed
darkness The Assyrian would encompass the land and the nation would
be engulfed in spiritual blindness cut off as an apostate people
left desolate in their unbelief and hardness of heart and Yet
even as he pronounces this judgment God's judgments the faithful
prophet tell us are things by which God gives a fore forward
message, a forward to the word of his mercy and cheer and comfort
for an elect remnant. In this ninth chapter, Isaiah
prophesied of the times of Israel's greatest darkness and desolation,
times of God's greatest blessing upon his people, his true Israel. The times spoken of are the times
of Christ's coming. Without question, it's speaking
about our Lord's advent, his coming into the world in human
flesh. No question at all concerning that. But it reaches beyond just
what took place when our Lord Jesus came into the world. The
prophet is talking to us about the coming of Christ in redemption
and grace. So he's talking to us not only
about the fact that Christ came here to redeem and save his people,
But he comes in the power of his grace in times of great darkness
to give light to chosen redeemed sinners and call them by his
grace, applying his work of redemption to his chosen ones and his redeemed
ones. as we saw in Romans chapter 11
this morning, and so all Israel shall be saved. Now I know this
is an accurate interpretation, an accurate understanding of
what we had before us in Isaiah 9, 7, because in Matthew chapter
4, the Spirit of God tells us plainly, this is exactly what
the prophet was talking about. I'm giving you the very sense
of the text then. When I tell you that Isaiah here
speaks of the blessedness of Christ coming to accomplish redemption
and the blessedness of Christ coming to apply that redemption
to his redeemed. Who knows? Maybe, maybe you're
here tonight because you're one of those spoken of in our text
to whom the Lord God promises Christ will come. and give light
and liberty and salvation. Verse two. The first thing we
see after Isaiah describes this changing from judgment to mercy,
Isaiah says to us in verse two that the Lord Jesus, when he
comes, gives light to those who sit in darkness. Here's a description
of man's nature and of God's grace. Isaiah tells us what man
is by nature and what God does for his chosen when he comes
to save them by his grace. The people that walked in darkness
have seen great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. We live, as Brother Mark said
in his prayer just a few minutes ago, in a time of terrible, terrible,
terrible darkness. The apostate religion that engulfs
the world is a horrid, horrid darkness. I recognize that I
speak contrary to the common opinions of men. We live in the
darkest age man has ever known. We have intellectual brilliance. We have constant advances in
science and technology. And with all that, we live in
the darkest days this world has ever known. But Isaiah is not
only speaking of these times, he's talking about all of us
by nature. You see, man by nature lives
in utter darkness, in utter darkness to all things spiritual. I say
this to you repeatedly because it needs to be said repeatedly
and needs to be understood. No man by nature has the slightest
understanding of anything relating to God, to Christ, to redemption,
to salvation, to grace, to life, to holiness, to righteousness.
No man by nature has any understanding with regard to his own heart's
depravity and his own heart's nature. The Jews were God's professed
people. But then as now they lived in
utter spiritual darkness. They had the law, they had the
ceremonies, they had the ordinances of God. God's prophets came and
spoke to them the word of God. They had all the rights that
God had ordained of divine worship. They read the law every Sabbath
day in their synagogues. They recited the scriptures one
chapter after another. Jews studied the Word of God
in meticulous detail. There was probably, there probably
has never been a people in this world more well trained in Bible
history and religious orthodoxy than the Jews who lived upon
the earth while our Lord walked in this world during the influence
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were brilliant. They were
brilliant men. They could recite scripture,
give you dates and names, most of us can't even pronounce. They
were brilliant men in that regard. And yet the Lord Jesus said to
them, the religious leaders of the day, the most knowledgeable
of the most knowledgeable generation that ever walked on the earth.
He said, you do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power
of God. We have a prime example of this
in Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a ruler of the
Jews. That doesn't mean that he was ruler in the sense of
a king. He was ruler in the sense of influence. This man, Nicodemus,
was a brilliant man. He was a well-taught man, highly
educated man. This man Nicodemus was one of
those who could, he could point you to chapter and verse for
everything in the Old Testament. He knew his Bible well and didn't
know it at all. He didn't know it at all. He
came to the Lord Jesus and said, good master, we know thou art
a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that
thou doest except God be with him. That wasn't a compliment.
He wasn't a teacher come from God. He was God come to teach.
And the Lord said to Nicodemus, you don't know beans about anything.
That's exactly what it said to him. Nicodemus, you think you're
smart, and all your kinfolk think you're smart. You don't know
beans about anything. He said, except you're born again,
you can't see the things of God. You can't see the kingdom of
God. Except you're born again, you can't enter into the kingdom
of God. And Nicodemus, being the brilliant man he was, he
said, well, how can a man be born when he's old? Can a man
crawl back in his mama's belly and be born? That's just how brilliant fellows
think and react to things they don't understand. All they can
do is attempt to ridicule. We're no different. Paul says,
for you were sometimes in darkness. That's not what he says. He said,
you were sometimes darkness. darkness, but now you're the
light of the world. You're a light in the Lord. You see man by nature is spiritually
dead. Tell me what a dead body knows
or feels or sees or understands. and I'll tell you what man knows
about the things of God. Tomorrow we're supposed to have
that eclipse. And if tomorrow gets here, I
expect about 2.30, a lot of us will be out there looking at
the eclipse with those special funny looking glasses. And if
you should take a blind man out there and have him to turn and
look at it, he could stand there and stare at the thing, for the
full two minutes, and it wouldn't bother him a bit. How come? Because he's blind. On the other
hand, if you step out at the noonday sun and look up into
the sky for very long at all, not during the eclipse, but any
day, and stare at the sun for just a few seconds, you're going
to injure yourself horribly because you see. The natural man, with
regard to all things spiritual is blind. He is in darkness and
he is darkness. The natural mind understandeth
not the things of the kingdom of God, of the spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. That means that man by nature
knows nothing of the depravity of his heart, nothing of God's
salvation in Christ, nothing of the character of God, nothing
about righteousness, nothing about divine truth, nothing about
redemption, nothing about salvation. I don't mean he needs to be instructed
in some things. I mean he doesn't know anything
and you can't teach it. You can't teach them. We take
great care, rightly so, to teach our children the facts revealed
in the book, and the history of the book, and the doctrine
of the book. And we teach them those things,
praying that God will be pleased to open their hearts and reveal
himself in them. Because Mark, until God revealed
himself in you, you were blind. When I first met you, you were
in darkness. You were darkness and had been
religious all your life. Is that a fairly accurate statement?
Been religious all his life. All his life. Darkness. Because
the natural man sees and understands nothing. But when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes, he causes great light to shine. He shines in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, so that he that is spiritual
understands all things, knows all things, discerns all things.
What's that mean? The spiritual man being taught
of God, he hears the word. That's exactly right. Couldn't anything else be right?
That's truth. He understands who He is and
what He is and how God saves sinners through the person and
work of His Son. He understands the revelation
of the glory of God, that is, God being just and yet justifying
the ungodly through the blood and righteousness of His dear
Son. Look at verse 3. When the Lord Jesus comes in
saving power, he gives light to those who sit in darkness.
And he also multiplies the citizens of his holy nation, his Israel,
the kingdom of God, the church of God. Turn over to chapter
54 in Isaiah, Isaiah 54. Here Isaiah expands on this prophecy
a little bit. He says in the opening words
of verse three, thou hast multiplied the nation and not increased
joy. And look what it says in verse
one of chapter 54. Sing, O barren, and thou that
didst not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not prevail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent. You gotta have a bigger house,
gotta add some rooms to the house. And let them stretch forth the
curtains of thine habitation. Spare not, lengthen thy cords,
strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be habited. The gospel
is going to reach the four corners of the earth. God's going to
increase his kingdom. That's what happened when Christ
came in his incarnation, in the accomplishment of redemption.
And as he now sends forth the gospel of his grace into the
four corners of the earth. Here the prophet is talking about
a time when God diminished the physical nation of Israel greatly.
And yet though he destroyed that physical nation and gave no joy
to the physical seed of Israel, He multiplied the holy nation
of his elect. That holy nation Peter spoke
of in 2 Peter, or 1 Peter 2. That holy nation chosen of God
and precious. So that both in Isaiah 9 and
in 1 Peter 2, the Spirit of God is telling us that Christ has
enlarged the borders of Zion to include Gentiles. Gentiles
out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, as well as
the Jews. Now I'm fully aware, I'm fully
aware that the number of God's elect given to us in Revelation
chapter 7 is a hundred and forty-four thousand. A hundred and forty-four
thousand. That does not mean that there
are just 144,000 people in all of history going to be saved.
It is a specific number given for an indefinite number as far
as man has any knowledge of it. He gives us a specific number
identifying the fullness of the salvation of all the 12 tribes
of the children of Israel. The number of God's elect is
never 143,999. And it is never 144,001. It is
144,000. Not one can be added to the number, nor one diminished
from the number. But he speaks of the enlarging
of God's kingdom, telling us this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes
and he saves his people, not just among the children of Israel,
but wherever he sends his word and sends the light of the gospel.
I know this too. God's elect are not known by
us. They're not known by anyone.
except as they are called out of darkness into his marvelous
light, and he does this by the preaching of the gospel. You
and I don't know who God's elect are, so we preach the gospel
to everybody. We don't know where they are,
so we preach the gospel everywhere. I was just asked this week about
preaching places, and I said, I'd be happy to go, pay my own
way, and preach the gospel in the Vatican if I get a chance.
Now, I won't go and preach there and let folks think I'm in support
of that fella, that old man dressed up kind of funny like a woman.
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. I would go
and preach the gospel anywhere, because God has his elect everywhere,
everywhere, everywhere. And I seize every opportunity
to preach the gospel in the most remote places and in the most
populous places because God has his elect everywhere and they're
known only when God gives them light by the gospel in the power
of the Holy Ghost causing them to believe. Causing them to believe. God does this by the instrumentality
of gospel preachers. Paul says, our gospel came to
you, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance. Therefore, we know you're elect
of God. He said, God chose you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel. God sends his servants
to preach the gospel. Now listen to me. He never sends
them in vain. He never sends them in vain. Wherever God sends the gospel,
wherever God sends the gospel of his grace, he sends his son. And wherever gospel sends his
son, it is that he may multiply the nation. This is what he said. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. I often see the Lord do strange
things. I try to observe what appears
to me to be strange things. Some years ago, a very well-known
lawyer down in Fort Worth, Texas, ran across Grace for the Days,
laying on the nightstand of his mother when he went to visit
her in the rest home. And he picked up a little bit of it
and got, I mean, got excited. I had no idea how many copies
of it he ordered. And he passed them around. And
he hadn't had them a week until he was mad as a hornet. He got upset with me about something.
And I'd never met the man, never spoke to him. Maybe I spoke to
him once on the phone. He might've called it, I don't
remember. But first thing I knew is a judge, every day, comes
to sit on that bench and he's got his Bible, and laying right
beside his Bible, copy of Grace for Today. You never know how
God will use the word we send forth. But God never sends his
servant with his message, that he doesn't send his son with
his grace. His word will not come forth
bearing no fruit. His word will accomplish exactly
what he pleases and prosper in the thing whereto he sends it.
So I encourage you, this congregation, and I encourage my brethren,
pastors and preachers and missionaries and other churches, understand
Paul's words. Brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And when Christ
comes in saving power and grace to chosen redeemed sinners, something
happens. The first thing that happens
is a flood, not of joy, but of sorrow. Look what it says, the
very next line. Thou hast not increased the joy. What? What? You hear promise that the people
that walked in darkness have seen great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast
multiplied the nation and not increased the joy. And I looked
at that for a long time, for hours, scratching my head. What on earth is he talking about?
What's he talking about? The fact is our Lord's first
works of grace in our souls. are painful, sorrowful works. Nobody would ever volunteer to
experience it. Nobody would ever volunteer to
experience it. They're necessary, but painful
works. His works of conviction in us,
by which he convinces us of sin, our sin, of righteousness accomplished
by Christ, and of judgment finished, are works by which he breaks
up our hearts, like breaking up fallow ground, and squeezes
from us the humble, contrite, brokenhearted confession, acknowledgement
of our sin. Conversion is always a painful
experience. Christ sends his spirit to strip
away our righteousness. You'll never know his till he
does. He breaks up the fallow ground so that he may prepare
the heart to receive the good seed of his word. He comes with
his holy law and shakes it over us in judgment to convince us
we deserve his wrath, that he might give us life and free us
by his grace. He humbles us, abases us, that
he may exalt us and lift us up He causes us to hunger and thirst
after righteousness. That he might fill us and satisfy
us with his grace. He causes us to seek him that
we might find him. To seek him with all our hearts.
This is God's work in his people. He comes and brings the light
of his grace. And the first thing he does is
strip and bow and break and humble and wound. That's the way he
heals and clothes and exalts with his grace. Now look at the
next thing. verse 3, Then, O blessed be His
name, our all-glorious Savior brings joy to those He has broken. The broken Brokenness, the contrition,
the hunger, the thirst, the seeking, which are sometimes looked upon
by men as conditions of grace. Aren't that at all? Not at all.
Rather, they are the works of grace in us. These are the things
that call sinners to look to Christ. Look at the next line
of verse three. They joy before thee. According to the joy in harvest,
And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. What's he talking
about? What's he talking about? The
joy he's talking about is what Paul calls the joy of faith.
There's none like it. It's like the joy of full harvest
after a long summer where there's been little promise of fruit.
It's like the joy of victory with a complete battle and bounteous
spoils after a long, long battle. But it's a joy, a full harvest,
a joy of a battle won, a joy of spoils gained, not by what
we do, but by the work of another, even the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the joy of forgiveness, the joy of righteousness, the joy of
reconciliation and peace with God, the joy of adoption as the
sons of God, the joy of a good hope through grace. It is what
He gives us in exchange for our bondage, the joy of liberty. That's the next thing. When it
comes to chosen redeemed sinners in saving grace and power, the
Son of God gives liberty to those who are in bondage. As Gideon
delivered Israel from the Midianites, not by might nor by power, but
by the power of God's spirit. So the Lord Jesus brings his
people into the glorious liberty of the sons of God by the irresistible
power and grace of his omnipotent spirit. Look at verse nine. For
thou hast broken the yoke of his burden. and the staff of
his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. You remember Gideon and the conquest
of the Midianites? The Lord stripped Gideon and
his army so that it would appear obvious to everyone that the
conquest over Midian was not Gideon's doing, nor the doing
of Gideon's army, but rather the doing of God by the might
and power of his spirit. And so the Lord Jesus gives us
freedom. Freedom from the curse and dominion
of the law. Freedom from the torments of
a guilty, accusing conscience. Freedom from the tyranny of Satan.
Freedom from the love of this world. Freedom from the fear
of death. Freedom, freedom, freedom. Oh God, thank you for freedom.
If you've ever been in the pit, If you've ever been in bondage,
you will rejoice in freedom. Freedom. When Jesus comes, the
tempter's power is broken. When Jesus comes, the tears are
wiped away. He takes the gloom and fills
the life with glory. For all is changed when Jesus
comes to stay. He comes and gives sinners who
had no sense of freedom before God. Sinners terrified at the thought
of God. Sinners in chains of darkness. Sinners in prison. And he gives
them freedom. Freedom to call God our Father. Freedom to come to the throne
of grace, to come into the Holy of Holies by His blood, by this
new and living way He's opened for us. Now read verse 9. For
every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments
rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. When the Lord Jesus comes, the
prophet here tells us, speaking by divine inspiration, that he
gives chosen sinners, redeemed by his blood, as he saves them
by his grace, he gives them victory. Victory, absolute victory. So that we are described as more
than conquerors through him that loved us. More than conquerors. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. Being convinced of God's perfect
love, he cast out all fear. And where there is no fear, Bondage
doesn't exist. Where there's no fear, enemies
can't terrorize. Where there's no fear, men are
assured nothing can defeat them. Nothing can harm them. Nothing
can injure them. Oh God, right upon my heart,
every moment of every day, with the finger of your grace by your
Spirit as only you can, God's perfect love for me in the revelation
of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and cast out all fear. For greater
is He, the Lord Jesus, who is in you than he who is in the
world. The Lord Jesus comes, and this
is the last thing. When He comes, He comes to make Himself known
as the Christ of God. So that sinners who sat in darkness
and could not see, had no ability to discern anything, see Him
in the fullness of the glory of His character. I didn't say
they see all the fullness of the glory of His character. I
don't know that we'll ever do that, even in eternity. But they
see Him in all the fullness and glory of His character as God,
our Savior. So that when He comes, He reveals
Himself. You've been groping about in
darkness and pressed down with a sense of guilt. Come to the church house seeking
the Lord. Asking God to speak by this preacher to you. Asking
God to speak by his word. And you can't see and you can't
believe and you can't turn away from your own looking at self
for something. And then suddenly Christ appears.
Revealed in your heart and you say, this is he. This is our
God, we've been waiting for Him. That's the one we've been looking
for. Now look how it's described. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Here is God our Savior, the one
promised back in the garden. A child born, a child born. Real human being born into this
world who is God come to save a son given Our Lord Jesus was
a child born from Mary's womb he is the son given through Mary's
womb as the Son of God he could never be born and The government
shall be upon his shoulder This one who is the God-man, our Savior,
this Christ, He's the man in charge. He's the man who rules
everything. He has all power and all dominion
over all things. And this is His name. His name
shall be called Wonderful. Come here a minute. Listen to
me now. Listen to me. The more I know of Him, The more
I realize how little I know. But Mark, he'd been making himself
known to me for over 50 years. And I'll tell you what I've observed
about him. Everything I've learned about him is wonderful. Everything. All his works, all
his word, all his ways, everything. Wonderful, wonderful. His name
should be called Wonderful Counselor. He's the one who teaches us the
will of God. I don't mean he just lays it
out there for us. I mean he teaches us. He makes us to know God. He, this wonderful one, is himself
God, the mighty God. Nobody else could redeem us.
He's the everlasting Father. Isaiah wasn't confusing the persons
of the Trinity. Christ is God the Son, but He's
the everlasting Father. In this sense, we are all born
of Him. the prince of peace he comes
and gives peace what peace he gives what peace he gives peace
that passes understanding peace in all his ways and all his works
peace with God peace in the heart he's the prince of peace now
watch of the increase of his government and peace there shall
be no end. You mean this king, this God,
this savior is going to continually increase his kingdom? That's
what it says. He's doing it all the time. He's
doing it all the time. And the increase of his peace,
peace given to man, the peace he gives to his elect scattered
through all the earth, reconciling them to God. There shall be no
end. Upon the throne of David, he's
not waiting to sit on it, he's sitting on it now. Upon the throne
of David and upon his kingdom, he sets king of king and Lord
of lords to order it and to establish it. And he does it with judgment
and with justice. He does it by right and he does
it by law from henceforth even forever. How do you know this? how can you be sure? How can
you be sure that all these things are so? The zeal of the Lord
of hosts will perform this. The zeal of the triune Jehovah,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost for His own name. The zeal of the
triune God for the glory of His Son. zeal of God for you. The objects of His love will
perform this. God says so. Amen.