And I've had my mind very much
on that privilege and responsibility the last several weeks. Those
saints of God there have been put through some severe testing
the last three years, and I want so much to help them. I couldn't
help but to think as I was preparing my message this evening of the
first visit that I made to Ashland as a preacher, as one who was
asked to fill the pulpit there. I was 26 years old, and I met
a couple as I came through the door. They were the first ones
there that night. It was a Wednesday night. It had been 31 years ago. Ann and Ruth Adkins, they were
chartered members of the church in Ashland. And after introducing
themselves to me, Ms. Adkins asked a question. It was a question I had considered
many times, but I'd never heard anyone ask it. I'd never read
anyone asking it. She said, Mother Fortner, how
good do you have to be to get to heaven? And I answered her, as good as
God. And she just beamed with delight. You may ask, well how can a sinner
be made as good as God? That's a reasonable question.
God commands, be ye holy, for I am holy. He said concerning
his people, you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Now that's not a recommendation,
that's a declaration. You shall be holy for I, the
Lord your God, am holy. Be ye holy for I am holy. That's how good you've got to
be to get to glory. How? The Lord God threatens wrath
and judgment against every sinner. He declares he has sworn The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. And God will never go back on
his word. How then can a sinner stand before
God Almighty holy as he is holy? Only by the obedience of his
darling son as our substitute and surety whereby he came into
this world. Assuming our nature as the last
Adam, that he might recover us from the ruin of the first Adam,
that he might give life to dead centers by virtue of his merit,
the merit of his blood and of his righteousness by the power
of his grace, and that he might make us holy. Holy in a just
and righteous manner by the sacrifice of himself. Let's read about
it in Romans. I'm sorry, Isaiah chapter nine
and verse six, Isaiah chapter nine and verse six unto us. I hope you can read that as personally
as if God Almighty sat down on the pew beside you and pulled
your ear over next to his mouth and said to you, unto us, unto
you, unto me, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of the host will perform this with those words. God, the Holy spirit describes
our savior. This is the Christ upon whom
we rest the weight of our immortal souls. His name is wonder. I want so much for you who are
yet without life, without grace, without hope, to know, trust,
and love him. Oh, may God the Holy Spirit make
his name wonderful in your soul. for your everlasting good and
the glory of his great name. Have you ever noticed that in
the scriptures we are never called to trust the various things that
men tell us they trust? I often hear people talk about
trusting the blood of Christ, trusting the righteousness of
Christ, trusting the finished work of Christ, trusting this
doctrine or that doctrine. Much like Martha, when the Lord
Jesus stood before her and she was distraught because of her
brother's death and the Lord said, Martha, I told you he'd
rise again. And she said, I know he'll rise in the resurrection.
She said, I believe in the doctrine of the resurrection. And the
master looked at her and said, Martha, you're looking at the
resurrection. It's one thing. to believe in the doctrine of
the resurrection, it's something else to trust Him who is the
resurrection and the life. It is one thing to believe in
the atonement, it is another thing to trust Him who is our
atonement. It is one thing to believe in
the righteousness of Christ, it is another thing to trust
Him who is the Lord our righteousness. But throughout the scriptures,
while we're never called upon, never called upon to trust in
his blood or trust in his righteousness or trust in his finished work,
we're called upon to trust him. But throughout the scriptures,
we are called upon and described as a people who trust his name. We pray in his name. We gather
in this place in his name. We worship in his name. We offer
a cup of cold water in his name. We serve in his name, serve him
and serve one another. And we trust his name. They that
know thy name, the Psalmist said, will put their trust in thee.
Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember
or trust the name of the Lord. The Lord God says, who is among
you? that feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his servant,
that walketh in darkness, and hath no light. Let him trust
in the name of the Lord. God's people are a people whom
he describes as those who trust in his name. They shall trust
in the name of the Lord. In his name shall the Gentiles
trust. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why do you suppose
that is? Now in modern religious tomfoolery,
and that's all I can say for the religion of this age, men
have got the notion that if they will just repeat Jesus' name,
and often you'll see folks just repeating his name over and over
and over again in meaningless cant until they work themselves
into a frenzy and they think somehow that's, that's worship.
Or they will just repeat his name and say, I believe in Jesus
and I trust in Jesus name. And that means they're saved.
No, no. I believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. No, no. His name is who he is. His name is who He is. To trust in His name is to trust
Him. His name sets before us His character,
His person, His work, all things concerning Him. So to call on
the name of the Lord is to worship Jesus Christ, the incarnate God,
the revelation of God, who is Himself God, our Savior. To pray in His name is to pray
trusting Him, only Him. To serve in His name is to serve
Him, only Him. We call on the name of the Lord. That is, we call on God. In all His glorious being, that's
the object of our worship. That's the object of our faith.
Not this thing or that about Him, but all of Him. We worship
Him and we worship His name. Here in Isaiah 9, verses 6 and
7, the prophet declares to us that God will fulfill His work
of grace. He will perform His work of grace
and fulfill the promise of grace. He will save His people from
their sins through the person of Jesus Christ, His incarnate
Son, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now I
want you to hold your Bibles open to this passage and follow
me as I give you four things set before us here. First, the
prophet describes the incarnation of our Savior. I'll be brief
there, we've looked at it a good bit recently. Then he gives us
our Savior's name. His wonderful name by which he
sets before us his character. And then he speaks of our Redeemer's
exaltation. And then he concludes this thing
by asserting the certainty, the sureness, the security of God's
everlasting purpose. Our text begins with a prophecy
of the incarnation and the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulders. Now, without question,
Isaiah is here elaborating upon the prophecy that he had given
in chapter 7 and verse 14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel. He's
telling us that in order for God to save us, God himself must
come into the world in our nature, in human flesh. In this opening
sentence, the prophet tells us three things about our Savior,
the Messiah, whom God had promised. First, he declares the humanity
of Christ. Unto us, a child is born. His human nature, his human body
and soul were formed in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing
power of God, the Holy Spirit, a body prepared for him in which
he would do the will of God, that is, in which he would accomplish
our redemption. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world a real man. The wonder of that just gets
bigger and bigger all the time to me. He who sits upon the throne
of glory is a real man. Real man, just as really a man
as David Burge. When you came in and sat down
in the office tonight, I saw a little tiredness in your eyes.
He knows that more really than you'll ever know it. He's a real man. Sometimes I
see grief on the faces of God's people. He knows grief like you
and I can never know it. Sometimes I see in the faces
of men and hear from their words, experiences of great sorrow.
He knows that like you cannot know it. He is a real man. He lived on this earth in our
nature. The scripture tells us plainly,
he came here, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
because now as a man, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He came here to suffer the wrath of God in our place. And in order
for him to do so, he must have our nature, a nature capable
of suffering and of death. And because he came here to redeem
men, not angels, he took hold on the seed of Abraham. The apostle
tells us specifically in Hebrews 2.16, he took hold on the seed
of Abraham, not the seed of Adam, the seed of Abraham. He took
hold on God's elect. He took hold on the covenant
seed, the people God had given him from eternity. You know,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be made rich. How real is our Lord's humanity? When he was laid in the manger,
that baby that came forth from his mother's womb was as dependent
upon the milk flowing from his mother's breast as any baby ever
was. His body needed to be warmed
by the blanket she wrapped around him just like any other baby.
He knew what it was to hunger and to thirst. He knew what it
was to hurt. He knew what it was to be weary.
And he still does. He's a real man. One touched
with whatever touches us. But then Isaiah speaks of our
Lord's deity. Unto us a son is given. God Almighty gave us his son. That baby that came forth from
Mary's womb, in that baby, in that infant body is God Almighty. So explain that to me. There's no explaining that. There's
no explaining that. think somehow they can get God
figured out and put him in a little box. And I used to, but it kept
busting out of my boxes. God's bigger than we are. If
you've got a God you can understand, you can comprehend, whose worth
you can explain, you've got a God like yourself. This one who is
the infinite God took into union with himself real humanity and
never ceased to be God. I told you he must have his mother's
milk to live as a man. And while at the same time he
must have his mother's milk, he is God supplying milk in her
breast. He's God Almighty. This great
mystery of godliness is what Paul calls it. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And this is the mystery of his
grace. Unto us, A son is given. Man had broken God's law and
man must repair it, but it must be the obedience of one who is
more than a man or his obedience would be of no value to any man.
Man had sinned and man must die, but it must be the death of one
capable of satisfying the law and justice of God or his death
would be of no benefit. Christ Jesus, our savior is the
gift of God's love to us. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. God gave us his son in the covenant of grace. In fact,
I believe it was brother Darwin Pruitt and I was talking about
this Sunday night, Isaiah 49 verse eight. The Lord speaks
like this. He says concerning the Lord Jesus,
behold, I have given thee for a covenant of the people. Christ
Jesus is God who made the covenant. He is the surety who stood in
our room instead in the covenant. He carries to us all the blessings
of the covenant. More than that, He is the covenant. God gave us his son before the
world was. He gave us his son in the incarnation. He gave us his son when he delivered
him into the hands of infinite justice to satisfy the law and
justice of God in our stead. He gives us his son in the new
birth. The new birth is nothing less
than God almighty putting his son in us. And he will give us
his son in everlasting glory. forever and ever and ever. I don't know much about what
heaven shall be, but I suspect heaven shall be the continual
giving of Christ to our souls, continually filling our souls
with him. Third, Isaiah proclaims the dominion
of our savior and the government shall be upon his shoulders.
Now remember, Isaiah is talking about Christ as the mediator. the incarnate God-man, our Redeemer.
He's not talking about Christ in his essential deity. In that
capacity, the government of all things has always been on his
shoulders. But here is a man, a man who is God by virtue of
his obedience as the reward of his obedience, the government
of all things is laid on his shoulders. This is the result
of all that he accomplished. We read that in John 17 too.
Romans 14 9 over and over again in the scriptures to this end
Christ both lived and died and revived that he might be Lord
both of the dead and of the living thou hast given him power, dominion,
authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. What's he talking about? The
government shall be upon his shoulders. Some of the commentators
say well let's talk about the government of creation. Others
say it's talking about the government of providence. Other states talk
about the government of the church. Other states talk about the government
of all grace. I say yes to all. All government, all creation
has been put under his feet. All providence obeys his will. In his church, there's just one
lawgiver, one king, and one head, and he's it. We receive all things
from him. His word is our only rule. He
is our only governor. All grace is at his disposal. Charles Simeon put it this way.
As in the days of his flesh, he exercised the most unlimited
authority over diseases, devils, and the very elements of nature.
So now everything fulfills his unerring counsels. Can you get hold of that? Everything
in heaven Earth and Hell is subject to Him. Not just subject to Him,
ruled by Him. Not just ruled by Him, fulfills
His unerring counsels in all things. Nothing is beyond His
control. He rules everywhere, rules all
things, and rules for His people. Now, look at the next part of
our text. Here the prophet shows us the character And oh, what
an amazing character He describes, the character of our Savior.
And His name, His name shall be called. That is, this is what
he shall be. When this child is born, when
this son is given in human flesh, this is what you shall see in
the body of that child, in the nature of that child, in the
works of that child. His name should be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. You who know him will bear me
witness. that Christ Jesus our Savior
is indeed all of that. Wonderful. His name is wonderful. The name of Jesus is so sweet. I love its music to repeat. In his person, in all his works,
in all his accomplishments, in his infinite love, In all His
grace, in His dying in our stead, in His resurrection, in His exaltation,
in His intercession in heaven, He is wonderful, amazing, astonishing. His name shall be called Counselor.
He stood as our Counselor in the covenant of grace with the
Father before the world was. He gives us the spirit of wisdom
and counsel by his word and by his spirit directing our affairs
in this world. He is our counselor at the bar
of God in heaven, making intercession for us, our advocate with the
father. His name should be called the
mighty God. Jesus Christ is God. The mighty one. That's really
Probably a better translation. His name should be called God,
the Mighty One. Why that? Sometimes in the scriptures,
civil magistrates are called gods. Sometimes angels are called
gods. The Lord God said, I said to
you, you should be as gods. They're called gods because they're
put in positions of authority and power to execute judgment
and justice. But they're just called gods.
This one who is our Savior is not just called God. His name
is the mighty God. God the mighty one. He and he
alone is the God-man and the man who is God. Though he assumed
our nature, As I said earlier, he is God Almighty. Though he
died under the wrath of God, he still is God Almighty. Though he sits in heaven in our
nature, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, so that he
is sympathetic, compassionate toward men, he is God Almighty,
God the Mighty One. Because he is the Mighty God,
he is able to accomplish Everything he undertook as a man. He came
here to make a multitude that no man could number perfectly
righteous by his obedience in life. And his obedience in life
as a man is the obedience of infinite worth before God. So that now you read it back
in the office, Bob, we are made the righteousness of God in him. His righteousness is righteousness
infinitely sufficient for us, infinitely effectual for us,
for it is the righteousness of a man who is God. His blood by
which we are redeemed is blood that has obtained eternal redemption
for us in the language of Scripture. Eternal redemption. Redemption
that cannot be measured. It cannot be measured in value.
It cannot be measured in time. It cannot be measured at all.
It is infinite redemption for his people, all his people, so
that there is no possibility of condemnation. And because
this high priest, this man is God almighty, this one, God,
the mighty one, is able to save to the uttermost. all who come
to God by Him. Me? Come to God by Him. He's able to save you. Any sinner? Come to God by Him. He is able
to save to the uttermost all them that come to God by Him.
And what's his next name? His name shall be called the
Everlasting Father. Isaiah wasn't confused about
the persons of the Godhead. or the doctrine of the Trinity.
He is writing by divine inspiration. His words are precisely accurate. Jesus Christ is the everlasting
father. He's the father of all his spiritual
seed, the church. We are born of him. He is that
one after whom his church is named. The whole family in heaven
and earth, Ephesians 3 15 is named after him. He is the father
of an everlasting age, the father of heavenly glory. He is the
father of the world to come. He is the everlasting father.
We are born of his spirit and being born of his spirit. We're
partakers of his nature. We wear his name because he is
the everlasting father. We're under his care, under his
provision and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, partakers
of his inheritance. And then he's called the prince
of peace. He is the prince who gives peace. The prince by
whom peace is accomplished. and by whom peace is bestowed,
the Prince who gives peace everywhere where he comes in grace. Grace
and peace are multiplied by him. Find me a place where Christ
reigns in the heart of a man. I'll show you a man who has peace. Find me an assembly where Jesus
Christ reigns as Prince of Peace. I'll show you an assembly where
there is peace. He purchased peace for us with
his blood. He performs peace in us according
to his promise, and he sustains peace in us, continually giving
us peace. I haven't heard it yet. I'm looking
forward to hearing it. Shelby told me that Brother Moose Sparks
preached to you last Tuesday out of Matthew 11. The Master
said, come unto me. all you that labor and heavy
laden and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me and you shall find peace unto your souls. We come to him
terrified under the wrath of God, terrified with guilt, terrified
with a sense of judgment upon us and we come to him weary and
heavy laden and we Sweet, sweet rest. Peace in my
conscience with God. And then day by day, in various
difficulties, our peace is disturbed with one thing or another, either
because of what we find inside ourselves or because of what
we face surrounding us and family or in trials at work or difficulties
in the world and we are uneasy. I've been thinking a lot about
Brother Josh fixing to go back to military. Unstable times. How on earth can David and Celeste
and that boy off be at peace? Slip under his yoke. Sally's
got family dying. How do you deal with that and
have peace? How do you have peace? You slip under his yoke. You
keep kicking against it, you'll never have peace, but oh, When
God gives you grace at last to bow to Christ the Lord. What peace. What peace. Do what you will. You're the
Lord. Take my yoke upon you. And you
shall obtain peace. Now look at verse seven. More than 100 years ago, a young
man in England had become a very famous preacher. Thousands, thousands,
thousands of people gathered every Sunday to hear him preach.
See, it's Spurgeon. And the church decided to rent
Surrey Garden Music Hall so that it housed more people. And he
preached to 23,000 people in that place. One day as he was preaching,
as he started to preach, someone in the galleries, two or three
people, planned to pull a nasty trick. And they screamed, fire,
fire, fire! And people stampeded out of that
place. Folks were trampled to death. And Spurgeon just nearly
collapsed mentally. He couldn't think about preaching
for two weeks. And the Saturday before the second
Sunday after that all happened, Spurgeon had the text in Philippians
2 brought home to his heart by the power of God's spirit. God
hath highly exalted him. And he said, that sustains my
heart. Christ is on his throne. And
that's what Isaiah tells us here. Of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. Isaiah is talking
to us about the sovereign rule of Christ, the Messiah, the Prince
of Peace, our exalted King, the governor of the universe, the
governor of his church and people. God Almighty says, I have set
my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Hold your hands here and
turn over to chapter 45, Isaiah 45. Let me show you what this
prophet tells us about the Christ we trust. In verse 22, the Lord Jesus says,
look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God, beside me there is none else. In verse 23, here's good reason to trust me,
he says. I have sworn by myself, the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto
me every knee shall bow. And every tongue shall swear.
Everybody is going to bow to him and everybody's going to
confess it. Either now being bowed by his
grace or in the day of judgment, when he cast them into hell,
everybody will acknowledge and confess his Lord. Surely shall
one say in the Lord, have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. There was a day when I was incensed
against him. I breathed the hatred of my heart
against him, and he made me ashamed. Thank God he did it before he
sent me to hell. But sooner or later, all who
are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord, in the
Lord, this one Isaiah is describing back here in chapter nine, shall
all the seed of Israel be justified, every one of them, and shall
glory, shall boast, shall trust in him. This one who sits upon
the throne of the universe. The Lord God says concerning
his son, having accomplished redemption, therefore will I
divide him a portion with the great and he will divide the
spoil with the strong. He sits upon the throne of this
world, governor of all things. His kingdom is an ever increasing
kingdom. His government, a peaceful rule. He rules in the hearts of his
people. He rules in the hearts of His
people by His love. He rules through the gospel of
His grace, but He rules everywhere. His rule is established in the
hearts of men by wisdom and justice. He comes to sinners, makes them
willing in the day of His power, convincing them of the wisdom
and justice of God in redeeming sinners by the sacrifice of His
Son. And it causes us to know that justice in grace. Of his
kingdom, there shall be no end. His church, he says the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. He makes his kingdom to endure
forever. Well, can we be sure of all this?
Look at the last line. Here's the infallible security
of God's purpose and his promise. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will perform this. It is by God's own zeal that
his grace is accomplished. By God's own zeal that the salvation
of his people is performed. By God's own zeal that his kingdom
increases and is kept. Brother Don, what does all this
mean to us? How does this apply to us? This one, who is our savior,
is God in whom you can safely, completely confide. God in whom you can safely and
completely trust. God into whose hands you can
completely and safely trust all things. Oh, how we ought to admire
him. How grateful we ought to be to
have him and to know him. How devoted we ought to be to
him. Jesus. Oh, how sweet to me. His name is wonderful, wonderful. There's something about that
name, the hymn writer said. Something about that name that
prevails with God. Something about that name that
gives sinners acceptance with God. Something about that name
that satisfies our soul's needs. Something about that name that
cheers our hearts. Something about that name that
gives this sinner hope. And there's something about that
name that gives me hope for you. How shall a sinner stand before God
as good as God? We will stand before God Almighty
today, tomorrow, and forever. in his name, in Jesus Christ
himself, one with him, one with him. My wife took my name nearly 39
years ago, identifying herself with me.
And I don't know how laws are now, but back in those days,
when I married her and she took my name, I became completely
responsible for all her obligations. That's the purpose of marriage
is to teach us something about our Redeemer. Will you listen
to me now? Probably the Son of God has married
us and he gave us his name, made us one with him and became completely
responsible for all our obligations. And now, with his spotless garments
on, we stand before God, holy as God's own Son. Amen.