I mentioned last Sunday morning
that it is this time of the year when the world is speaking about
the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and seeing that as so, I brought
my message last Sunday and today and the Lord willing next week
from passages of scripture which declare the birth of the Savior. Last Sunday, last time, we looked
at three verses in the Bible. The only three times that this
word is found in the Word of God. Emmanuel, which declared
the truth of God with us. Last time we began in Isaiah
and came to the New Testament. Today I want us to do just the
opposite. We're going to begin in the New
Testament and then we are going to go to Isaiah. So if you will,
turn with me first to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, and I'll begin
reading in verse 26. And in the sixth month, that
is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, in the sixth month
The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named
Nazareth, to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph,
of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. The angel
came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that are highly favored.
The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. The angel said unto her, fear
not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou
shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. Now if you will let's go to Isaiah
and keep in mind especially those last words that the angel spoke
to Mary concerning her son that he would sit upon the throne
of David his father and that he would reign forever And his
kingdom, of his kingdom, there shall be no end. Now in Isaiah
chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder. In 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 Hosts will perform this. Let me say a few words about
the context in which this prophecy is found that we just read. I
said just a moment ago that there were three verses in the Bible
where we have the word Emmanuel. Two of those were in Isaiah and
one in Matthew. The one in Isaiah chapter 8,
if you look back, and we looked at this last time in verse 8,
speaks about thy land, O Immanuel. It says, and he shall pass through
Judah, that is the king of Assyria. He shall overflow and go over
and shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his
wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. And I made the point of mentioning
that the land of Judah, Palestine, was here referred to as Emmanuel's
land because it was here that the one who is God with us, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ, that he would be born in Palestine,
that he would live, he would walk upon this earth there for
30 some years. It was there that he would be
crucified, there he would be buried, there he would rise from
the dead, and from there he would ascend into heaven. So it is
referred to as Immanuel's land. Now in this prophecy, God told
them because of their sin, the king of Assyria was going to
overflow the land. And then this chapter where our
prophecy is that we're looking at today, you notice it begins
with the word nevertheless. All this evil. all this calamity,
all this destruction that the king of Assyria was going to
bring upon Emmanuel's land and the nation of Israel. But nevertheless,
nevertheless, and here's a message of good news, a message of good
news. And as we read from verse 1 down
to our text, let me point out these things. First of all, nevertheless
the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when
at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by
the way of the sea beyond Jordan and Galilee of the nations."
Now notice, the people that walked in darkness have seen a great
light. Now this great light we know
in this passage of scripture is quoted in Matthew chapter
4. This great light is he who is the light of the world. You
remember two times in the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the light of the world. People who sit in darkness, people
who were born in darkness. And that's true of all men and
women when we come into this world. But the scripture here
speaks of a time when they that sit in darkness shall see a great
light. And that great light, of course,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the Apostle Paul?
He saw a great light. And I asked you this morning,
Have you seen a great light? I'm not talking about literally,
but have you seen a great light that has changed your life? That has caused you to trust
in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and your desire is
to live for Him and for His glory? Have you seen a great light?
What a promise here. What a promise here that people
who sit in darkness and as I said all of us when we come into this
world, we are in the darkness of depravity, of death, of sin. And as God commanded the light
to shine in the beginning, Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2. God said,
let there be light, and light was. So God must command the
light to shine into our hearts. Because we are in darkness when
we come into this world. And thank God, if God has caused
the light to shine into your heart, you've seen a great light. A light like no other. and a
light that has surely changed your life. Now, let's read on. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a 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. They joy before
thee according to the joy in harvest, And as men rejoice when
they divide the spoil. The second thing we see, not
only a great light, but a great joy. It's greater than what men
experience when they've had a great harvest and they've brought their
harvest home. It's normally a time of rejoicing
and joy. Greater than when have defeated
in battle another army and they are dividing the spoil. This
joy, is greater than that. The joy, remember what the angel
said unto the shepherds that night, I bring you good tidings
of great joy. For unto you this day in the
city of David is born a savior. Great joy. Now read on. The third thing, verse four, for thou hast broken
Lord Jesus Christ is the breaker. We don't talk about him much
under that title, but that title is given unto him in the prophecy
of Micah. He's the breaker. And here, in
this prophecy, we see, For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden,
and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as
in the days of Midian. For every battle of the warrior
is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood. But this, this
battle, this breaking of the yoke of the burden and the staff
of the shoulder and the rod of his oppressor, what does that
refer to? It refers, of course, to sin,
to Satan, to the bondage that men are born into. And this victory
would be as in the day of Midian. Now that takes us all the way
back to the Book of Judges, and I won't say much about this,
but remember how Gideon defeated the Midianites in a very unusual
way, and it happened very quickly. And this overthrowing, this breaking
of the staff that we read here, The yoke of the burden and the
staff of his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor. It speaks
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who finished the work
which the Father gave him to do when he came into this world. And that staff, that yoke of
the burden under which his people were born was broken. Remember
he said, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Has He made you free? Has He
delivered you from the burden of sin? From the yoke, from the
staff? Has He? Well, praise God. Now let's go on. The author of
this deliverance that we just read about one who is promised,
He is the Messiah. And this is a prophecy concerning
Him. Three things I want to point
out to us about this prophecy. First, the promise of this prophecy
is to us. Notice what it says, for unto
us. Let me ask you this morning,
what if this prophecy read like this? for unto the angels." Wouldn't concern us, would it?
It wouldn't be for us. And the truth is, you know this
is true from the Word of God. God created all the angels and
there's no telling how many millions maybe of angels there may be.
And we know that God allowed many of them to fall into sin. But God never sent a Savior and
God never sent a message like this unto the angels. What if this verse read like
this? For unto the sinless. Wouldn't apply to us. Wouldn't apply to you. Wouldn't
apply to me. If the message was to the sinless
or to the angels, but thank God, the first thing we see about
this prophecy is for unto us, unto us, the scripture says. This promise of the Messiah,
the Deliverer, is unto us. Now every one of us here this
morning, Ask yourself this question. Do I believe, do I believe that
this Deliverer, this Savior came into the world to deliver me?
Do I believe that? Do I believe that He came into
this world to deliver me from the bondage of sin, from the
tyranny of Satan? You may say today, well, preacher,
I do. I do believe that, but I sure
wish my name was there instead of that word us. No, you don't. No, you don't. Because whatever
your name is, if it was written for unto whatever your name is,
your flesh would convince you There's another person in this
world with that name. And it's not for me. It's for
that other person. But you see, this word, us, is
like that wonderful word, whosoever. Whosoever. Unto us, the scripture
says. Whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you believe this morning
this Savior, this promised deliverer, that this one came to deliver
you? I trust and pray that you do,
and if you don't, that God will grant unto you repentance and
faith. The second thing about this prophecy,
the person, the person of this prophecy is Christ. We say that
He is a child born. And we read about that, didn't
we, just a few minutes ago in Luke chapter 1, when the angel
appeared unto Mary and told her that she would have a child.
And she, we didn't read this, but on further she asked, how
can this be, seeing that I know not a man? And God told her how
it would take place, and that is that the power of the highest
should overshadow her. that which would be conceived
in her womb would be of the Holy Spirit. You know, in the prophecy
of Jeremiah, we read, for the Lord hath created a new thing
in the earth. A new thing. And I might say
a singular thing also. A singular thing. A new thing. A woman shall encompass a man. Only time. Only time. when a man would be born of a
virgin, a woman who had not known a man. And this child would not
be the seed of Adam and would not come into this world under
the curse of Adam, because his father is God. Unto us, unto
us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. That takes us back to that title,
Emmanuel, doesn't it? God with us. A child given a
son, or a child born rather, a son given. The Son of God. Now this prophecy, it clearly
points to Christ. And it's blasphemy to make this
or try to make this prophecy apply to any other person. The
old Jewish writers, they recognize this and they confess for years,
for millenniums, they confess that this was a prophecy concerning
the Messiah. But then after the Lord Jesus
Christ was born, and men began to show that this prophecy spoke
of him, then those Jewish writers and men, because of their unbelief
and their hatred of Christ, they said, no, this applies to Hezekiah. To Hezekiah. But as we go through
these things that are said about him, we will have a good example
of what Peter said about men who rest the scripture. They
twist the scripture. And they do so to their own destruction. And as we go through these things
that are said about this one who is a child born and a son
given, we will see this could not in the wildest imagination
have pertained, rather, to Hezekiah. Hezekiah, when this prophecy
was given, was already, I think, ten or eleven years of age. And his kingdom sure didn't last
forever. Now, let's see what is said about
this one. First of all, the government
shall be upon his shoulder. Now, it was a common practice
for a ruler to have some sort of insignia on his shoulder. Many times it was a key. It was
placed upon his shoulder to show that he was a ruler, that he
was in authority. We see this in the message to
the church of Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3. We read,
These things say of he that is holy, he that is true, he that
hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth,
he that shutteth and no man openeth. So the first thing we're told
about this deliverer is that The government shall be upon
his shoulder. Now you say, what government?
Well, of course, his church. We recognize that, that he is
the king in his church. But the scriptures reveal that
he is the governor of all things. He is the ruler of all things,
of everything in this world, every person in this, every event. He said, all authority is given
unto me, both in heaven and in earth. Now the fact that this
was laid on his shoulder, it speaks to us of several things. The shoulder is, of course, a
place of strength to carry a burden. And we know that the burden of
government, to govern, is a heavy burden. I forget that saying
about the head that wears the crown. But what a burden it is
to govern. But here is one who is able and
worthy to rule over all things. And he does rule over all things.
But as I looked at this this past week, I thought about maybe
this. Upon his shoulder, they laid
the cross. They laid the cross upon His
shoulder. And we would just say this about
the Lord Jesus Christ who's on the throne of God. He got there
by way of a bloody cross. Yes, He's King of kings and Lord
of lords and reigns and rules everywhere, over all. But He
got to that throne by way of a bloody cross. That cross was
laid upon His shoulder. Now the second thing we read,
He shall be called the Wonderful Counselor. The translators of
our Bibles chose to put a comma after Wonderful before Counselor. But I believe it's best to read
this as the Wonderful Counselor. And I believe this for two reasons.
First reason is because these other sayings are all made up
of two words. And then another reason is this. To say that Christ is wonderful,
now that's easy to say, isn't it? He's wonderful in His person.
No person like Him, God and man. He's wonderful in His words.
No man ever spake like this man. He's wonderful in His works.
He's wonderful in his love. He's wonderful. In fact, there's
nothing in which he's not wonderful. But to say that he's a counselor,
there are many counselors, but he's a wonderful counselor. And by that, I mean he's the
only one the only man who, in his subsistence before the foundation
of the world, was in that counsel of God. None of his creatures
does he take counsel with, but Christ is, knowing all of his
thoughts, all of his purposes, all of his decrees. There's not
a purpose or decree or counsel of God that the Lord Jesus Christ
was not privy to. Because of all of God's actions
and works, Christ was first. Christ was set up first. And in that counsel of peace,
that covenant of grace, as we like to call, when the terms
and the conditions of salvation were fixed upon Him, He is the
wonderful counselor. And Paul said, in him are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The wonderful counselor. You say, well, what does that
mean to me in practice? Well, it means he knows all about
you. He knew everything you would
need in order to save you, to bring you home to heaven. He
knows. He knows what God requires. He
knows. He's a wonderful counselor. And
it also means that we may go to Him when we have perplexities
and problems and difficulties. And we know that He always knows. He's always there for us. There's no problem we can bring
to Him. You know, sometimes as a pastor,
People have come to me with a problem, and, you know, I think about
Solomon, when those two women brought that baby. The wisdom
he was given. Sometimes I've been confronted
with some problems, and I just have to say, well, we'll just
have to pray about this. You'll never take your problem
to Christ, that He does not know the solution, the answer, the
wisdom that you need, no matter what it is. He's a wonderful
counselor. And then we read he's the mighty
God. Remember this, when we read that
he's the mighty God, he's the son given, he's the God of whom
the scripture says there's nothing too hard, nothing. Nothing. Was creation hard? Be hard for you. Be hard for
me. Speak a world into existence.
Create the heavens and the earth. Make light. Create darkness. Create the seas and all the things
of this universe and all the universes there are. Takes might. He's the mighty God because all
things were made by Him, the scripture says. And without Him
was not anything made that was made. The mighty God. Is providence hard? reign and
to rule, to fix all things throughout all time, so that all things
work together for good to those who love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose? Would that be a hard thing, a
mighty thing to do? To decree providence, all providence? Absolutely. He's the mighty God. Think about this, to satisfy
God's justice. God, who is absolutely holy, can't even begin to think about
how holy God is. God is just, and every sin will
be punished. Now he takes it upon himself
to satisfy the justice of God for the sins of his people. Was
that difficult? Was that hard? He's the mighty
God. He's the mighty God. And number
four, it says he's the everlasting father. Now in the deity, in
the godhead, the trinity, he's not the father and the father's
not the son. But when we read this here concerning
him as the everlasting father, we recognize it is in relationship
to his children, the children of God. Those who were given
to him in that covenant of grace before the foundation of the
world. He is our everlasting father. When I thought about this, I
think about the fact that fathers provide for their children. How
many times have we seen a young man who seemed to be pretty much
carefree and fancy loose, you know, and then God gives him
a child, gives him a baby, and things change. They take on responsibility. They feel a response, and they
should, a response. This is my son. This is my daughter. I'm going to make sure that she
or he has everything that they need. He is our father, and he's
made sure we have everything we need. We need clothes. He's provided for us a righteous
garment. that shall never wear out. We
need food. He's provided for us the bread
of life, and it'll never be diminished. We need a dwelling place, and
He's provided for us a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. He's a Father, the everlasting
Father, who will never leave his children. My father left
me. Your father has or will leave
you. Death takes them away. Here's
a father who will never be taken away. Will never. He said, I will not leave you
orphans. I won't do that. The everlasting
father. Some translators, rather, they
translate this, the Father of Eternity. And they point out
the truth that He's the author and giver of eternal life. He
procured it for us and He gives it to us. And then the last thing,
He's the Prince of Peace. Oh, what a blessing this is.
My, peace. I've offended God, my Creator. I've sinned against Him. I have,
as it were, spit in His face. And He's angry with the wicked
every day. And that's what I am, what I
need. I need peace with God. Someone said, make your peace
with God. You're not going to do that. He did. the Prince of Peace. He's reconciled
us unto God. And I, who was by nature an enemy
to God, am now reconciled unto Him. He's made peace also between
Jew and Gentile. There was that wall of partition,
the law of Moses that separated the Jew and the Gentile. The
gospel is the only thing, really, that breaks down these man-made
barriers, these man-made walls that separate one race from another
race, one people from another people. Jesus Christ, he's made
peace between us and God and between us and our neighbors. And He gives us peace in our
conscience, doesn't He? When we offend Him, and we do,
there's only one way that peace will ever be restored, and that
is for the blood of Christ to be sprinkled once again on our
conscience. And we know that He's removed
the sin. Now the last thing in this prophecy,
the assurance of this prophecy, verse 7, says the zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. You think there's maybe a chance
this isn't going to take place? Isaiah spoke these words some
600 years before Christ was born. Was there any possibility that
it would not be fulfilled? That it will not be fulfilled?
Because it's still being fulfilled. You notice it says in verse 7,
of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no
end. How is his government increased? Through the preaching of the
gospel. Through the preaching of the
gospel, he calls out his people, brings them out of a kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And He sets
up His throne in the hearts of His people. And the scripture
here says, the zeal of the Lord shall perform it. John Gill said,
this zeal of the Lord is nothing less than His fervent, flaming
love. God's love, first of all, for
His own glory. And that's something, we heard
it just a few minutes ago in the Sunday school class, but
that's something that really needs to be emphasized in this
day when man is under the false assumption that God exists for
man. God created man for His glory. And all things, all things which
shall take place in time are for His glory. And this is for
His glory, what we've just read here. And God's fervent love,
flaming love, will make sure that this comes to pass. His love for His own glory, His
love for His Son. and his love for his people,
his covenant people. He said, yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. May the Lord be pleased even
here this morning to increase his government. Maybe there's
someone here that he's setting his throne up in your heart even
now and causing you to bow causing you to bow to His Lordship, to bow to Him as your King, as
your Lord. Everyone wants Christ as their
Savior, everyone. But the Scriptures declare that
He's first, Lord and Savior. And when it comes to Lord, denying
yourself, Take up your cross and follow me." That kind of
whittles the number down. May the Lord bless His word to
His people here this morning and comfort His people. We're going to sing a chorus.
We'll sing through it twice. It's a chorus I think most everyone
knows.