I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9. I also want
to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. That's all right. You won't go
to jail for using the word Christmas in here. One of our leading theologians
reminded us in a recent study out of a text of scripture we'll
be looking at today that the concept of Mary as we have it
in one of our hymns. God rest you, Mary, gentlemen.
Let nothing you dismay. The word Mary originally meant
mighty, mighty, mighty. And the people of God are mighty
in Christ, are they not? And that we are strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might, which as a consequence,
we have joy. See, our joy is rooted in the
strength of the Lord. Is that right? For the joy of
the Lord is your what? So the people of God that are
seen exhibiting joy, which is a wonderful attribute and overflowing
effervescence of a deep and settled peace in the soul, is actually,
as it were, prophesying prophetically the power of God in our life.
When we rejoice over our troubles, when we rejoice in the midst
of our difficulties, when we rejoice at the reflection of
who God is and all that he has done, we are actually demonstrating
strength. Is that true? We're actually
demonstrating strength. I want to spend a few minutes,
not long, reflecting upon a very It seems to me very popular text
of scripture this year. Every year, the church, and particularly
a pastor, will toil somewhat as to what text to preach from
or to speak on with regards to this one subject, the birth of
our Savior. And you can go anywhere in the
Bible and talk about Jesus, because the whole book is about him.
It's just whether or not you want to pick a portion of scripture
and actually meditate on it and reflect upon its theological
implications and then draw it out for the people of God. This
year, I just noticed everywhere I went in all of the messages
that I was listening to, all my favorite preachers were preaching
from Isaiah chapter 9. I said, Lord, you gave me that
verse. You didn't give that to them.
You gave me that verse. And so I'll just chat with you
a little bit about what we have in front of us, for which we
are to be ever thankful that in the 21st century, again, as
our elder said, with all the difficulties that befall us,
we are still an exceedingly blessed people of God, exceedingly blessed. So the title of our message is
a child is born and a son is given, And Isaiah is speaking
to the people of God in his day in Isaiah chapter 9. Now, most
of you know Isaiah runs 66 books, doesn't it? 66 chapters, rather,
that consummate his book. And for many, that is an unusual
but also a very symbolic statement because the whole of Isaiah is
the gospel itself. It's called a pre-evangel prophecy. It speaks to the person and work
of Jesus Christ in depth from the beginning all the way through.
And most of us know Isaiah 53, where our Savior emerges out
of Isaiah 53 as the suffering servant and Lamb of God, as a
substitute for sinners, taking away the sin of His people. And then Isaiah begins to land
his prophecy in chapter 66 with the end of the world, the judgment
of the ungodly, and the everlasting joy of Jerusalem. Chapter 9, therefore, is just
the beginning of his prophecy. He starts his ministry in Isaiah
chapter 1 verses 1 and following, where even in that portion of
scripture we have an allusion to the birth of Christ, don't
we? The ox knows its master, the ass knows its keeper, but
my people do not know their God. And here our master himself was
born in a stable. The animals knew him, but the
people didn't. and they didn't regard him. So
Isaiah speaks to the person and work of Christ a lot. In chapter
9 it opens up dealing with some ironic language and it's ironic
in one sense because he says in the opening of chapter 9 verse
1, nevertheless the dimness, the dimness shall not be such
as was in her vexation when at the first he lightly afflicted
the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali and afterwards more
grievously afflicted her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan
in Galilee of the nations. There we are. But what is he
saying? The prophet is actually turning
the corner, ladies and gentlemen, on a lengthy series of stinging
indictments raised against Israel over and over again. If you know
your Bibles and if you've been under sound teaching at any length,
what you know is the Old Testament church seemed to always have
kept herself in trouble. Always found herself under the
judgment of God I don't know if you are a advised or informed
Bible believing person of with us today but if you are this
is what you understand God doesn't play and God is holy and he will
even chase in his own people and And in fact, he has a winnowing
process by which he separates the wheat from the chaff, and
he doesn't take too long to get the job done. And it seems that
Israel was constantly under the judgment of God, constantly under
his chastisement. Now, we are at the stage which
would have been somewhere around 800 years before Jesus. about
755 760 BC and at this time King Uzziah having died remember what
Isaiah said in chapter 6 in the year that King Uzziah died I
saw the Lord high and lifted up and sitting on his throne
now Uzziah was one of the great great Judah Kings of that day
and his ministry extended almost 50-something years that was a
long time whenever the Kings reigned For 40 and 50 and 60
years, generally it was because they were in the favor of God.
When kings only lived 10 and 20 years and got taken out, well,
as the proverb says, because of the wickedness of the people,
there'd be many rulers. They end up dying because God
takes out bad rulers, gives others opportunities. But when he raises
up a good servant, he will use him for a long time to bless
the people. Thus it was with Uzziah. In his
old age, he got into some trouble. Point of application, finish
well. In his old age, he got into some
trouble and when he did die, his son took over, Jotham, and
then Ahaz, his other son, which is presently reigning at this
time. Unfortunately, by now, Israel has continued impenitently
in the depths of idolatry against God. All the nations around Israel
are alluring her. She is engaging in secularism,
carnality, the kind of superficial stuff we warn against in our
present day. Because I don't know if you know,
there's nothing new under the sun. That which has been is presently
occurring today. So that you and I are the New
Testament church, but in a lot of ways we still struggle with
the same temptations, the same trials that they did. And unfortunately
the church in general, the larger church, is succumbing to the
same idolatrous trappings in Israel's day as we are presently
today. We are suffering from covetousness
of worldly accomplishments. Covetousness of the world's success
the world's allure the world's beauty and if you were to spend
time reading Isaiah chapter 7 and chapter 8 which is the preface
for chapter 9 you would know that what God is saying in chapter
9 verse 1 is I have had to chastise you I've had to in a decrease
your influence. I've had to actually start taking
your cities I've had to let the enemy come in and Demonstrate
to you that your love for the enemy is not for your salvation
It will harm you and God allow the Syrians and allow the Assyrians
and allow the Egyptians and other nations to begin to plunder the
land of Israel So she was decreasing in number. She was decreasing
in power. She was decreasing in strength.
And Israel looked up, and the next thing you know, they were
all slaves of pagan nations. Slaves of pagan nations. And
they stayed slaves of pagan nations, ladies and gentlemen, even until
Jesus came. The people that should have been
ruling were slaves. The people that should have been,
as it were, lending and having control over commerce to bless
men and women who would submit to the crown rights of God and
submit to his word are the people who are now servants of other
pagan nations. This is the context in which
our story is set. And if we were to quickly draw
out the spiritual implications and carry them over to where
you and I are today, it's as Solomon put it in the book of
Proverbs. He's Ecclesiastes. He said it like this. I see princes
walking like servants. See, now that's what we call
a paradox. Because a prince should be riding
on a stallion. But he's walking like a slave
because he has lost a sense of his identity, his calling, and
his dignity, and God has humbled him, humbled her, humbled them. And that's what's happening in
Israel's case. Israel is utterly humbled. Has God humbled you? Have you experienced the humbling
hand of God? I have. May I say this? If you are a
child of God in this room today, you know something about how
God must humble you. He must humble you. It's preparatory
to His mercy. No man or woman in this room
knows the mercy of God in a saving way who has not been humbled. God must bring you low. You can't
look upon the true and the living God in the splendor of His glory
and beauty and effulgence of holiness standing on your two
feet with your pompous shoulders spread wide. God won't have it. And if you're going to be His
child, He's going to bring you love. He's gonna bring you love. I'll tell you boy when you read
some of that Old Testament stuff Tell him Lou people don't talk
like the Old Testament prophets talk today. I was in Jeremiah
the other day I think the 15th chapter almost started crying
The way God was tearing into Israel. I said Lord have mercy
but see God's holy and at a certain time he will really put it on
you and you'll swear you lost and See, that's where we are
in our text. This is where we are. And this
is why when we begin to discuss things like the gospel of the
grace of God, that's in Jesus Christ, the only people that
are prepared for the message of the gospel are sinners, afflicted
men and women brought low by their troubles, which were brought
on them by their own indolence and sinfulness. Am I making some
sense? Point number one in our outline.
I won't stay there long. The gospel is for the afflicted. Do you see that in your outline?
The gospel is for the afflicted. This is what Isaiah said in verse
1. The dimness shall not be as such as it was in her vexation
when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun
and then later on more grievously afflicted her by the way of the
sea beyond Jordan and the Galilee. And what we would assert to men
and women is this. Until God brings you to a place of filling
your sinfulness, your weakness, your inability, your depravity,
your humility, human corruption. You are not ready for the grace
of God. But God had done that for Israel to bring her to a
place, ladies and gentlemen, where she would be ready for
the Savior. And I will call your attention to the fact that these
afflicted people here are both Jews and Gentiles. They have
been humbled by God's providence. This is the northern part of
Israel. I've said it before, if we were dealing with a map,
I would describe Israel in comparison to, or analogous to, California
as the ten northern tribes corresponding to central California all the
way up north. All the way up north, where our
elder is preaching now, even up past Marysville. You some
you some folks don't go to Marysville. Y'all know that right way up
there in any event This is all what we would call the ten northern
tribes from Central, California down to San Diego Would be what
we would call the two southern tribes Judah and Benjamin Do
you know when our Lord came into this world? He didn't come into
this world doing ministry starting in Jerusalem and Judea God took
him as a very little boy all the way up north and to Galilee. He grew up in Nazareth of Galilee
in the hip town. Do you understand that? Now,
way up there is where the country folks live. The backyard, country
bumpkin, goofy talking. These my folks. Don't get mad.
These my folks. See, we got tire irons and cars
up on blocks out in the front yard because we're going to get
to it at some point. See, I still got some country
in my front yard if you came by my house. My wife would tell
you I'm a city country boy. And we talk funny too. And we're
poor, uneducated. But we're not ignorant. Do you
know there's a difference between being uneducated and being ignorant?
You know you can be educated and ignorant? Did you know that?
In any event, our master grew up. He grew up way up there with
those folks who were poor, uneducated, misfits of society. And the echelon
of Israel looked upon them with scorn and ridicule. But this
is where God in his mercy starts to shine the light of his glorious
truth. He works that way. You and I
must ever remember that no matter where God has brought you to,
remember where he brought you from. Because I'm sure that if
he brought you He brought you from the same low pit that he
brought everyone else from. It's called a pit of sin. It's
a pit of darkness. It's a pit of depravity. It's
a pit of corruption. And we all fit that pit. It doesn't
matter what your ethnicity is. Doesn't matter what your sociological
background or economic background is. We all come from this one
pit. It's the pit of darkness and sin. And that's where God
shows up at. he showed up there and the text
tells us a light shined out of darkness isn't that what it says
a light shined out of darkness a light shined out of darkness
and we see that in verse 2 the people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light the people that walked in darkness. Who
are these people that walk in darkness? You know, the Bible
says that before you and I are born again, we not only walk
in darkness and live in darkness, but we are darkness itself. But
that's a bad tag to have. You are called darkness, not
that you simply do darkness. You are darkness. See, where
God is not in his actual favorable presence in your life, darkness
is there. Where God is not ruling and reigning
in the revelation of his glory in your life. It's nothing but
darkness How many of you know what I'm talking about now when
we talk about darkness? We're talking about a an absence
of divine truth as that knowledge and that light by which you know
God and walk with God there were days when I didn't know God and
I swear God didn't know me, but he did and But in those days
when I did not know God, I walked in utter darkness and I was a
slave to every whim and capri that you could throw at a brother.
You know why? Because when you're ignorant of divine truth, you
are susceptible to every lie. And that's called walking. Walking
is a way of life in the Bible. The halakha are writings in the
old Hebrew culture that talk about our conduct and our lifestyle.
And Paul tells us in Colossians, Ephesians, Corinthians, we all
had our time, our lifetime in the past walking in darkness
because we were darkness itself. But these are the people to whom
the gospel comes. And when you hear what it says,
the people that walked in darkness have seen not just a light, but
a great light. A great light. Let me make three
or four applications that are in your outline. I will not develop
these, but I trust you believe this. When Jesus Christ entered
into the world, he was the light of the world. Do you believe
that? It wasn't that he started to
become the light. He was always the light. From
eternity, oh, with the Father and with the Holy Ghost, God
is light. Do you believe that? From eternity,
oh, from everlasting, they are light and there is no darkness
in them at all. It was this light that entered
into the world from eternity into time. So the eternal glory
of God, which we call the light, the light of God and the person
of Jesus Christ penetrates this world. Do you know he is the
light that created everything? Jesus is the means by which the
Father brought everything into existence. And he said in Genesis
1, 2, let there be what? See, light is essential for life.
Light is essential for guidance. Light is essential for healing.
Light is essential for life. And so the scriptures speak of
him as the light that lighted every man that comes into the
world, John chapter 1, verses 1, 2, and 3. So not only is he
that eternal light, He's also the light that created everything,
but he's also the light of truth He's the light of truth Stay
with me now all over the world men and women are worshiping
our Savior and some in truth and some in falsehood But if
they know him in the truth, it's because he is the light that
has revealed himself to us as the true and authentic representation
of the glory of God and he is the truth itself, you know what
the truth is that which corresponds to reality and The way God sees
it. That's what truth is. So you
and I don't know truth. Truth has to be revealed to us.
God knows truth. And when God speaks, that truth
then is revealed to us. And now we can know something
about it. And so Jesus is said to be the truth. He even declared
it himself. I am the way, I am the truth,
and I am the life. No one comes unto the Father
but my. He is the authentic reality of all things according to God. He's the measure and the plumb
line by which we determine what's right and wrong. He's the standard
for everything perfect, everything good. But in order for you and
I to recognize that true, God has to cut the lights on. Am
I making some sense now what he does to every man woman and
child in the world And this is the reason by which we will all
stand before god and we will never be able to say I did not
know Is that he writes his laws on our conscience So that we
know right and wrong intuitively in the core of our being That's
the light of the truth of god's word in our heart and in our
mind in the core of our being by which god will be able to
say In your conscious, you knew Christ gave us that. See, He
is our Creator. He's the light of truth, but
He's also the light of salvation. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6 says,
God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and He has shined
in our hearts. Anybody remember that day when
God cut the lights on? He cut the lights on and he penetrated
your soul. He penetrated your mind with
the blistering glory of gospel truth. And it was good news to
a lost soul, wasn't it? It hurt, but it was good news,
wasn't it? Because that light now had finally
fused through the darkness and revealed God to you by which
he started drawing you to himself. Christ is the light of the world.
This is the light that we're talking about. And in fact, the
way Isaiah is speaking in verse 2, he's actually describing,
ladies and gentlemen, the ministry of our Savior. The people that
walk in darkness have seen a great light, and they that dwell in
the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined.
Christ says, I'm the light of the world. He went about manifesting
his father's glory. He went about telling the gospel
truth and people followed him, didn't they? What a wonderful
and blessed privilege to be such mass of miserable people as these
Galileans were and have God to enter into your presence and
begin to correct things. What a blessed truth. The people
that sat in darkness have seen a great light. The light has
shined upon them. And you know what we can actually say about
the Galileans? We can say that the Galileans
were the first fruits of God in the cause of the Gospel. Do
you guys remember in our Acts Bible study that we are developing?
That God in His mercy in Acts chapter 2 chose to take a band
of Galileans and caused them to wait in Jerusalem until they
were endued with power from on high, and they were filled with
the Spirit of God, and they became the representative of all the
nations that would hear the gospel. For the Spirit of God gave them
utterance, and they began to speak in other men's languages."
The wonderful works of God? The wonderful works of God? And
the people were amazed? And I taught us that they were
amazed at a number of things? that a person could be given
the gift of a language by which they could speak to other people,
never having been taught that language before. Those other
people can hear you and you are as articulate and eloquent and
clear in that other language that God gifted you in, of which
you could have never been in your own country, bumpkin, backyard
country talking slang. And that's why they were like,
aren't all these Galileans? These folk from the hood, they
can't talk right? And here they are declaring the
glory of God in such a profoundly eloquent way that the people
fell prey to worshiping God. What can God do with a humble
sinner? He can use him or her in ways
they could never know. He could use them. And so our
Master chose a collection, 120 of them, to be the means by which
the light would fuse through the world. And you and I are
impacted by that same light today. They went forth and preached
the Gospel, didn't they? They went forth and declared
the Gospel. And by the way, may I submit to you, what's about
to be developed in verses 3 through 5 are really Gospel emblems As
it were coming up out of are being derived from emerging from
a real political context. Look at verse three through five.
You have multiplied the nation. You've increased their joy. They
joy before the according to the joy and harvest. And as men rejoice
when they divide the spoil. For you have broken the yoke
of his burden and the staff of his shoulders and the rod of
his oppressor as in the days of Midian. For every battle of
the warrior is with confused noise, garments rolled in blood,
but this shall be with burning and with fuel of fire. What are
we looking at in verses three through five? We're actually
looking at a coalescence between the historical political judgment
that God brought upon all of the enemies of Israel in their
day He's actually prophesying of their being delivered out
of Assyrian captivity, out of Babylonian bondage. He's actually
prophesying about all the times when Israel got in trouble. You
know what they did? They cried unto the Lord, which
is my advice to you. See, God may get upset with his
children. That's a very anthropomorphic way of putting it. He doesn't
get upset because he already sees us acting a fool way before
we do it. So, you know, we only get upset when we get caught,
you know, and left feel with the way our kids act. So God
doesn't get upset, but he acts in a fashion to discipline us.
But he will often prophesy of our deliverance way before our
deliverance. And sometimes in his prophetic
word of delivering you, he will actually speak about the past
and the present and the future. That's what's going on in these
three verses. He's talking about their future deliverance before
they come out of Assyrian captivity. But he's also saying, just like
I delivered you back in the days of the judges. Back in the days
of the judges, which was somewhere around 1400 BC. For 400 years,
Israel is in the land under judges. Remember that? And we've learned
that the judges were sort of, they were little saviors that
God would raise up to deliver Israel. Because Israel was acting
an absolute fool. You know what the text says?
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Because
there was no king in the land. I'm going to get to him in a
moment. See, when there's no king in the land, people will
take on their own authority, their own right, their own control,
their own dominion. And that's what was happening
in the judges. So God would raise up saviors, right? Weird people. I mean, those judges were weird.
You wouldn't have Samson as your judge. I would because I like
him. He was cool, but but I'm weird. And so and listen, you wouldn't
have Gideon as your judge. Weak, wimpy, scared to death.
The one that the Lord said, mighty man of value. He said, who? This
is what Isaiah is talking about, as in the days of Midian, when
the Lord God worked through Gideon. to subdue your foes. The Midianites
were coming in every season, plundering the land, destroying
the harvest, bringing the people low. 600,000 like locusts they
were coming in and Israel was scared to death. They had no
Savior, no one to deliver them, but they were suffering from
their sin. We know what that's like, don't we? When God brings
us low because of our iniquities and our enemies seem to be taunting
us and taking everything from us, the only thing you can do
is wait on God. So Gideon is hiding in the winepress,
trying to keep him a little flower, a little wheat, before the enemy
comes and takes it. And that's where the angel of
the Lord shows up. Gideon, we got a battle to fight, thou mighty
man of valor. Scared him to death. That's when
he went through the whole fleece thing, remember? Now, see, because
I don't know if you got this right, God. You talking about
me? Let's work this out, the fleece thing. And when the text
says here, there was a confusion of noise. There was a chaos going
on. Verse five, for every battle
of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in
blood. What was he describing back in
Gideon's day? Remember how Gideon won that
battle? Did he win that battle by the power of his arm? Did
he use cunning, crafting intelligence on the part of his military warriors
or soldiers or generals? Did he win the battle because
he was strong or wise? No, because he was obedient to
God. And God told him, All I want
you to do is take a candle, stick it in a pitcher, and then get
some trumpets. Because I like trumpets. Did
you know God liked trumpets? All through the Bible. He liked
trumpets. He says, and what I want you to do is I want you to line
up. And I only want 300 of you. Even though it's 600,000, I only
want 300 of you. Because you know, more than 300, you guys
will get to boasting about your own power. See, God acts the
same. He always confounds the mighty with the base things. And all Gideon and his boys had
to do that night was blow the trumpet and break the pictures
and they won the battle in order that God might get the glory.
We call it the foolishness of preaching because the trumpet
represents the word of God. And when you blow the trumpet
of the word of God, men are ready to go to battle. We call the
light, the light of the gospel of the glory of God. And that
light comes through the life of men and women like you and
me, earthen vessels. But you must be broken for the
Lord Jesus in order for that light to shine, for men and women
to come to know God is present. We rejoiced in that series, didn't
we? And see, this is what Isaiah is saying. Do you remember those
days when I delivered you by the power of the gospel and I
received all the glory and your enemies were well defeated? These
are triumphant words that he's setting forth here. And of course,
if you're a child of God, you guys know these kinds of victories,
don't you? Doesn't God do this frequently for us? He brings
us through over and over and over and over and over again,
doesn't he? The point three is called the
joy of salvation, the joy of salvation. You have multiplied
the nation. This means that they were increasing
and you have the word in the King James is and not increase
the joy. That word not and not is a real
controversial word in the Hebrew. Technically, the construction
there should have it rendered. You have multiplied the nations
and you have actually increased their joy. The joy they joy before
you. Do you see that? See, this is
the joy of being in right relationship with God. This is the joy of
being in favor with God. There's a difference between
the temporal sort of joy that you get when you end up making
more money than you thought you were going to make. You know
how you have joy and stuff like that? The joy that you get when
certain people that get on your nerve disappear. You remember
that? You know that joy? No, that's a joy. Listen, I don't
care what you say. There are people that when they
disappear, you feel good. You feel good for a minute. You
say this is what you do. You go, thank you, Lord. Now,
you shouldn't be doing that. You really shouldn't. But you
do because these people bother you. These are your adversaries
for whatever reason. And I'm saying there are joys
that we experience, but there is no joy like the joy that we
have as we stand Coram Deo in the presence of God. That's a
pure gospel joy of spiritual depth that's between us and God
alone. No one can share in that joy.
It's just a joy of knowing that God is on your side. He's got
your back. And He has given you tokens of
that over and over and over and over again. And all of God's
people know something about that. And He describes it under three
metaphors that I want to briefly go through. And these three metaphors
are one, the harvest. I've been trying to teach us
at Grace the principles behind which God operates. They joy
before thee according to the joy in the what? Harvest do you
see it? That's verse number three. I
want you to pay attention. We're gonna do a little teaching
I know it's holiday season, but we still gonna teach So put your
thinking caps on the joy of the harvest is the consequence of
believing That if you sow good seed You will reap a harvest
That's the joy of the harvest. The joy of the harvest is believing
in process believing in the patterns that God sets up Is anyone hearing
what I'm saying? Because I have observed over
my 35 years that some folk want God to bless them, but they don't
want to toil in the process of sowing good seed and then being
patient until God actually waters the seed and causes it to increase.
Like we just want God to bless us because we're on God's team
now. You might be on God's team, but you're not starting. I'd rather be a water boy on
God's team than to not play at all. And then I'm going to work
on my skill sets by sewing in the time and discipline and hard
work. Cause I just know the law of
statistical probability is one of those starting players is
going to break his ankle or something. And then I'm going to be ready
to go in coach. Let me in. But see, but see,
this is the principle of sewing. Waiting and this principle applies
to everything that you do child of God Listen, the reason why
you and I are still seeing another day is because God has plans
and purposes to accomplish Will you hear me? The world is not
over wet God still has plans and purposes to accomplish and
for those who will operate in the principle of patience and
diligently sowing and You will reap if you faint not. You will
see the glory of God in your life. You will see the triumph
of God in your life. You will see the faithfulness
of God in your life if you will sow the good seed. of the Word
of God in your own life first and everywhere you go and wait
for the harvest. Am I making some sense? And that's
a joy when you see God come through and bless the fruit of your labors. And we could talk about various
evidences and expressions of that fruit. I won't go there.
The second analogy that he uses there, again, is the triumph
in battle. The triumph in battle. When they,
as they say, as men rejoice as men rejoice when they divide
the what? Spoil. That's what you do when
you go in and you plunder a country. You plunder a military. Again,
I'm not going to get graphic, but I am going to speak in terms
of essential redemptive truth. Most of us, I would grant, have
never ever seen real war. And that would be God's mercy
to you. Because the mind struggles when it sees things that are
actually functioning in categories that we are not prepared for.
Am I making some sense? It would be better that we would
live, get old and die without seeing some of the stuff my brothers
and sisters have seen. You understand what I'm getting
at? So war has a whole lot of complexity to it. It is neither
to be overly rejoiced in, nor altogether neglected. While as yet we are in a fallen
world, we will have war. There will be men and women going
to war. against each other, nation against
nation, kingdom against kingdom, brother against brother, sister
against sister, aunt against uncle, mother against father,
children against parents. How dreadful it is. Dreadful. I've been involved in four funerals
this month. This is one of these months on prayer this Tuesday. You know what I told the saints?
Because one of my sisters started waxing You know how you start,
you know, because prayer is a wonderful thing when we gather together
and pray. But one of my sisters started waxing a little bit too
confident. Lord, I thank you for the end
of 2013 and I thank you for the year 2014. And when it came to
my turn to pray, I said, Lord, let us back up a little bit and
go back to 2013 because 2013 ain't over with yet. I don't mean to correct my sister,
bless her, bless her name. We will get there. Some of us
will get to 2014, but some of us won't. And should we get there,
let's walk softly between now and then, because God might do
something to help you appreciate 2014 when it gets here between
now and then. You see, in other words, the
people of God cannot walk in presumption. We have to thank
God for every day we get. for every day of health, every
day of strength, every day of soundness of mind, every day
where the heart is still walking in love towards God, every day
where the mind and the lips are fitted to declare the gospel
of God's glory because we know God upholds all things. We know
he sustains all things We know that we live and move and have
our being in God and we know that the preparation of the heart
and the answer of the tongue They come from God. So if I'm
gonna say anything or do anything to God's glory He's got to work
in me the will and to do of his good pleasure and God will back
off for you a day Did you hear that sister Lord help because
he'll back off of you a day you wake up and and forget the Lord
your God, and say, okay, let's see if you can drive that car
without gas. All right, let's see if you can
get up that hill without my help, with the wind going against you.
All right, let's see if you can get out of this particular predicament
of argument with this person without my wisdom. You can't
wait till that day to end so you can go to bed asking the
Lord for mercy so you can get up in a new day. You guys are
hearing what I'm saying, right? So stay with me now because I,
you know, I love this season of the year, but it must be practical.
It must reach your soul. The one thing that I do not want
us at grace to ever do is to default to religion. Do not default
to religion. Did you hear me? Do not default
to religion. Religion cannot save you. All
it can do is blind you to the opportunity of the authenticity
and the reality of grace as it is in Christ. With religion,
you have all of the props and the instruments necessary to
attain the reality of the kingdom if we do those things right.
But if you fall prey to simply say, I'm just going to church
to do my time and get in and out, you miss the blessing. You
miss the blessing. and we show up on Christmas and
show up on Easter or Resurrection Sunday and we think we've done
what we're supposed to do? Listen, child of God, make sure
that you are not merely religious. Meet God when you come to church. That means pray for yourself,
pray for the neighbor on the left and right of you, the brother
behind you, and pray for your enemy. I know that's hard. The
brother on your right or left, you pray for him. Pray for him,
hell. And then pray for me. Pray for
the preacher. Hear me, because we can do what
Israel did. We can go through the form of
religion. For months and years. And not actually be impacted
by the glory of God. Do you understand Israel lost
the Bible? They lost the Bible for 300 years
after the days of Solomon. When they started doing big time
religion, you know how we do big time religion? In the days
of Solomon, they had been doing big time religion and God divided
the kingdom. They was doing religion without the Bible until little
Josiah showed up. Remember when Josiah was going
through tearing up all of the whore houses and sodomized houses
and tearing down all of the idols and getting rid of all of the
perversions in the church? It was called the purging. Do
you guys remember that? Guess what he told his servants
to do? Go in the temple too. You don't think mess is in the
temple? Clean up the temple. And as they were cleaning up
the temple, somebody kicked the treasure chest over. Guess what
they found? They found a Bible under the
treasure chest. I said, now that's about the
way it is today in religion. All they're concerned about is
money. Get rid of the book, throw it under the treasure chest.
Don't let nobody know where it is. Just keep preaching money.
Keep preaching tithes. Keep preaching politics. Keep
that Bible under there. Keep that Bible. But when it's
time to bring a revival, God will find the Bible. He will
find the word of God and he will give it to someone who will tell
the truth according to Jesus Christ. And then God will start
to change hearts and minds. But you can lose your Bible. Are you hearing me? In the treasure
chest of your own selfish agenda. Be very careful, child of God,
be very careful. We're thankful for the end of
another year and at the same time simultaneously to worship
our Savior, aren't we? So the spoils here that these
soldiers actually are enjoying is the spoils of victory for
us as the people of God. It's victory over sin. It's victory
over the law of God, which curses us. It's victory over works religion,
which will damn us as well. Did you know that Christ came
to deliver you from the yoke of bondage, legal works, religion,
law keeping, and out and out sin? You have to be delivered
from rank sin out there and from religion in the church. You have
to be delivered from just plain church and going through the,
am I making some sense? It's all a yoke. It doesn't have
the liberty that Christ gives and offers. It doesn't extricate
you from the heavy weight of performance, which all you do
by your performance is heap up more sin. You don't believe me? There's not one of us in here
that loves the Lord, our God, with all our soul, mind, heart,
and strength. Am I telling the truth? Now,
let me test all y'all. Somebody dare to raise your hand
and say I love him with all my heart soul mind and strength
We'll take you straight on up to John George right now See salvation is not about how
much you love him but about how much he loved us and gave himself
for us and laid down his life for us. Can I talk about that
for a few minutes before I let you out of here? See, this is
what God is getting to. He can't wait to get to it. He
can't wait. He tells us the victory is going
to be won. You're going to enjoy the harvest.
You're going to see the liberation from the oppression for, verse
6, do you see it? For unto us a child is born. Do you see that? That's called
God's solution. I love God because he will be
deep into an historical text Breaking up the historical text
and he won't even let you know when he about to flip the script
and go into his son Right there. He's talking about his son 700
years before his son comes he says for unto us a child is born
You know what God knows the solution to all of our problems is his
son. I Do you know what God knows? All of the political mayhem and
all the political trouble that Israel was going through and
all of the political stuff that we're going through. None of
this stuff is going to get fixed, ladies and gentlemen. Legislation
is not going to solve this problem. The problem of evil in the world,
the problem of wars, the problem of conflicts, the problem of
brother hating brother, sister hating sister is not legislation. It's not new books. It's not
a new morality. Certainly not that. It's a change
of the heart. individually. It's a change of
the heart individually. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now this is how God has worked. Let me see if you can do a better
job than God. I'm almost done. The Lord God in the person of
Jesus Christ comes into the world and he didn't save all of Israel.
He touched people one at a time. He called them one at a time,
didn't he? He dealt with them personally and close up one at
a time. This is how salvation occurs,
one at a time. This is what I mean by patience.
Patience, one at a time. And do you know what he has amassed
over 2,000 years? Are you ready? A glorious kingdom
of redeemed people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue
all over the world right now. Like many of us are the redeemed
people of God here in Hayward. All over the world, Christ has
a kingdom. He has a kingdom of sons and
daughters, brethren. who are born of the same nature
of Christ because of what he has done for them. And this is
all because God, our glorious heavenly father, watch this,
has given us a son. A child is born, that's the incarnation. And a son is given, that's the
affirmation of his deity. A child is born, that's the incarnation.
Remember, except we have someone like us, A son is given. That's the deity affirmed. Unless
we have someone like Him, we don't have a proper mediator
to mediate between us and God. Here God sends His Son. Now John
3, verse 16 is full. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. Gave Him. This is part of God's
covenant purpose. To give His Son. Not to give
Him in an aimless way, but in a covenant way. In a purposeful
way. He makes Jesus Christ to be the
head over everything to the church. Do you believe that, ladies and
gentlemen? Now, I want you to mark this because I'm getting
ready to briefly talk about verse 6 and 7 and close it down. Christ
has been made by God the Father, Lord and Christ over everything. He sits on his throne in glory. That little child that was born
in very poor and impoverished circumstances, he now reigns
as a glorious sovereign over all things. Do you believe that?
Without that depiction of Christ, you have a faulty gospel. Christ sits and rules over all
things. You can read it for yourself
in Colossians chapter 2. God has made him to be head over
all things to the church. He rules over all things as head.
Now he begins to describe for us some terms that are just worth
marking now, developing more fully later on. For unto us a
child is born. This is what he had said in chapter
7, verse 14. For behold, I show you a sign. A virgin shall be
with what? Child. Unto us a child is born. And unto us a son is given. And
the government shall be upon his shoulders. This is what God
had purposed all the time. To put the rule. That's what
the word government means. Rule. The one who actually dictates
how things are done. The governor. The rule. The rule. The governor. God has always
purposed to make Christ his son to be the ruler. As Psalm 2.
I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Kiss the son lest
he be angry with you and you perish in the way. Does God have
a king? Does he have a ruling king that
sits on his throne and running the universe? And his name is
Christ, is he not? That's why we call him Lord!
Lord! Lord! Because he rules. God set
him there. And he put the government on
his shoulders. Our Savior has broad shoulders,
doesn't he? See, and the symbol is that of
the uniform of a military leader with all of his stripes on his
shoulders. You know how our military wears stripes on their shoulders?
That's the analogy. And what that means is Christ
bears full authority, full rule, full dominion over all the universe
as God's governor. Are you hearing me? And now from
this position of governor, he's going to describe the superlative
nature of his rule. the superlative nature of this
rule. What kind of governor is this
that we serve? Here it is. Listen to what it
says. And the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his
name shall be called Wonderful. Isn't that good? Wonderful. He's wonderful, isn't he? He's
marvelous, isn't he? He's magnificent, isn't he? The
Hebrew term actually means inexplicable. It's a term that means unutterable. It's a term that actually means
impenetrable, meaning the name of Christ in terms of His attributes,
in terms of His work, in terms of His power, they are impenetrable. They are wonderful. It's the
same term that's used in the book of Judges concerning Manoah's
request to know the name of the angel when the angel said, why
are you asking my name seeing that it is wonderful? It's secret. impenetrable. But what it does do in its emanating
glory is it brings awe. See, everyone who meets Christ
is made to wonder. Because he's wonderful, isn't
he? This is what we learn in the Gospels and in the Book of
Acts. When God shows up, amazing things occur, doesn't it? When
God shows up, amazing things occur. And all the people were
amazed and in wonder and astonishment at the great things he did and
the great things he said. This is how you know when God
shows up. This is how you know. And see, so what we are dealing
with is not a proper name, as it were, given as a title that
people say. We don't go around saying Mr.
Wonderful, Governor Wonderful. We're saying the governor is
wonderful. Mark the next one. Mark the next
one. Counselor. Do you get that? Counselor
from Genesis to Revelation. He is the word made flesh dwelling
amongst us. He is counsel and He is might.
He is understanding and He is wisdom. With Him are all wisdom
and knowledge. In Him are the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge contained. Christ possesses all of the wisdom
of God, all of the knowledge of God, all of the understanding
of God. He becomes for God the Father, the manifestation of
His infinite impeccable knowledge. He's the treasure chest for every
believer. Is he not whenever we go to Christ we can get the
right answer Can't we this is what he meant by him being the
truth and he'll tell you the truth The only reason God's people
don't get out of the trouble that they're in is because they
really don't go to Jesus He'll tell you the truth He'll get
it right for you. He is wonderful and he is counselor
Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses. Let every word be
what I The counsel of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost will always
lead you and I in the right way. That's who Jesus is. This is
what they discovered of Christ when he did his ministry down
here. Not only was he wonderful in his ministry, he was wonderful
in his counsel. The mighty God. Do you see it? Did he accomplish
his goal? Did the Son of the living God
come into the world in such a powerful way that people saw the Father
in him? Yes, he did. Listen, this is
why in Isaiah chapter seven, he was called Emmanuel, God with
us. Now, Jesus wasn't called by proper
name Emmanuel everywhere he went. Emmanuel is a title expressing
the glory of God manifested in Christ so that when we see Christ,
we see God. Are you hearing me? God showed
up in the person of His Son. God showed up in the person of
His Son. And those who saw His glory knew that we were dealing
with God. Were we dealing with God? We
were dealing with God. And no less than the only true
God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We are very clear that we are
dealing with deity here, aren't we? It's so very important that
men and women understand. When you talk about Jesus, you're
not talking about a mere man. You're talking God. You're talking
God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
here is manifesting, ladies and gentlemen, not proper titles
that would be given to Him as a name. These five figures that
we're dealing with, the government being upon His shoulders, Him
being called Wonderful and Counselor, the Mighty God, the God of all
power, and then the Everlasting Father. You see that? Here we
are again. We are actually dealing with
attributions that were given to Christ because of his mediatorial
role to save a people for himself as their governor. Now don't
get it twisted. He is not God the Father. Do
you believe that? We don't hold to pagan notions of high bridge
and mixing the persons of the Godhead God the father is God
the father God the son is God the son and God the Holy Ghost
is God the Holy Ghost. There are three distinct persons
But the father that is God Almighty has given to his son to exercise
the privileges of fatherhood in two ways Can I help you the
first? All of the children whom the
Lord hath given him are for signs and wonders in Israel. Are you
a child of God? Do you know you were begotten
through Jesus Christ? That's exactly right. So Isaiah
says in Isaiah chapter 8 and Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter
2 that we are the children whom God the Father had given to Jesus
Christ. He is for us an immediate Father
source for he is the means by which we are brought into existence
both physically and spiritually. Are you hearing me? But the term
father actually speaks to the care that the father possesses
and holds over the children. Stay with me now. See, this term
is used in Isaiah chapter 22. If you will, pull it up. I told
you we got to teach a little bit. I know teaching kills some
folks, but we got to teach just a little bit if you don't mind.
In the book of Isaiah, he teaches us a little bit about this, Isaiah
chapter 22. Verses 20 through 24. Now mark
how Isaiah says this too in chapter 22 through 24. Isaiah chapter
22 verse 22 through 24 where Isaiah is addressing a man named
Eliakim. Now Eliakim is a governor and
he's a governor after the type of Jesus Christ. And will you
notice what verse 20 says? And it shall come to pass in
that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah. This was a literal governor but
he points to Jesus. and I will clothe him with your
robe, and I will strengthen him with your girdle, and I will
commit thy government into his hand. Do you see it? Now watch
this, ladies and gentlemen. And he shall be a what? Father to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. Mark the term then. Fatherhood
is a title that was given to leadership in the church. It
was given to the prophets. It was given to the kings. It
was given to the priest. It simply meant that they had
the official care over the people of God. Are you hearing me? They
had the official care over the people of God. And let me say
this as I begin to wrap this up. Every office in the scriptures
has its quintessential fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Every office,
whether it's a father, Whether it's a son, whether it's a king,
whether it's a priest, whether it's a prophet, whether it's
a servant, all of those offices are fulfilled in the person of
Jesus Christ. Am I making some sense? And therefore,
every office on a human level is important. Are you a son? Then thank God, because God had
a son. Are you a father? Then thank
God because he is our heavenly father. Are you one that takes
care of a family? Then thank God because he takes
care of his family well. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? And this is what we are dealing with here. We're dealing with
the five attributes of Christ's rule over his people for his
father's glory. He is called the wonderful. Now
notice what it says in verse 22. He says after he makes it
very plain in verse 21 and he shall be a father to the inhabitants
of Judah and of the house of Judah Jerusalem in the house
of Judah and the key of the house of David will I lay upon his
what so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut
and and none shall open. Isn't that what Jesus said in
Revelation chapter 3? I have the keys of David. I open
and no man can shut. I shut and no man can open. He's already openly, explicitly
acknowledging that God has given him all authority. The reason
you're saved is because God opened the door the pit brought you
out The reason you're kept is because God shut the door behind
you so the enemy couldn't get you and take you back The reason
you're kept today is because he's a good father. He's a good
father Our governor is a good father. And in fact, he's an
eternal father Our hebrew term there simply means that he will
remain faithful to keep us for all eternity We never have to
wonder about the Lord Jesus, who is our father, our governor,
our ruler, our keeper, ever abandoning us. This authority his father
gave to him to take in that good, in that good stuff, in Bible
teaching good, especially when it points to Christ, especially
when it points to Christ. And I will close here. It's just
a wonderful contemplation of His glory. He's going back with
me now. Because we could develop Isaiah chapter 22 and go all
the way into the Gospel, but I need to close here. I was hungry,
but I'm not hungry now. He shall be acknowledged by all
of His elect. by all of His people, by everyone
whom the Lord has given eyes to see and ears to hear. Everyone
who has tasted of the goodness of God and the power of His grace
and the grace of His salvation will be able to openly acknowledge
that Jesus is wonderful, He is Counselor, He is the Mighty God,
He is the Father of Eternity, He is the Prince of Peace. Do
you see that? The Prince of Peace. Again, all
of these are rule rights. that his father gave him, by
which he would govern the universe for us. And this is where we
close. Prince, ruler of peace. Is he the prince of peace? Does
peace rest with Jesus? See, this is what he came preaching,
was peace. Peace on earth. Good gospel will
from God towards sinners. through Him. See, He is peace. In fact, the writer to the book
of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14 puts it this way, for He is
our peace. Peace is a person. He brought
peace with Him when He redeemed us by His shed blood on Calvary
Street. The war that we waged against God, God against us which
would have destroyed our souls Christ vanquished that war by
his death on Calvary Street And so purchase the peace of his
people and he brings it to us through the gospel Do you remember
that day? Do you remember that day when
the Spirit of God filled your soul with the peace of pardon? The peace of justification, the
peace of liberation from your bondage to the curse of God's
law, to the wrath of God. Do you remember when God said
you're free? You remember when he says, I
will remember your sins no more. Do you remember when the spirit
of God says you are forgiven and God filled your heart with
peace? Really, what he did was allow his son by the spirit of
God to take residence on the throne of your soul. And where
he reigns, there must be peace. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Where he reigns, there must be peace. He broke down the middle
wall of partition that was between the Jews and the Gentiles. And
then He destroyed the enmity that was between God and us.
And He made a way where there was no human possible way to
bring us back from destruction, to make us sons and daughters
of God, to clothe us in His righteousness, to fill our hearts with His peace,
to drape us with the Spirit of God so that joy becomes the token
of the people of God's life, because Christ is on His throne.
And He will always remain on His throne. And the people of
God are everlastingly secure. And this is why we worship the
newborn King with everything that's in us. Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord God, for sending
Your only darling Son into the world to redeem us and to have
a people for Yourself. The throne of God and of the
Lamb is the means by which men and women are able to worship
God. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! A child is born,
and a son is given, and the kingdom is in his hand. And I'm so glad
that it is, aren't you? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank
you, thank you.