Transcript

Isaiah 9 as we actually go back and do the final installment of the Immanuel child prophecy. I’ve called it “Unto Us a Child is Born.” Um, actually a lot of the work for this message was done during my break and then I tried to get it in before Christmas. I actually don’t know what happened. It, it came into many parts and I’m just now getting to it. But I want to talk about the “Unmitigatable Power, Wonder, and Glory of the Kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ.” In Revelation 11, that’s what, the way the Bible words that, “the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. The kingdoms of this world,” actually it says, “are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” And this is what is prophesied here as a means of encouraging Ahaz and the ancient remnant of Judah as they are facing impending doom from their enemies. So as a part of all that God is giving them to encourage them and assure them that they’re secure in him, here’s what he writes, Isaiah 9:6-7.

6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. [Now don’t miss this last phrase,] The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

The unmitigatable power, wonder and glory of the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Unmitigatable is a word. Not all dictionaries agree with that but I found one that did and the reason I want to say that is because to mitigate means to hold back, to reduce, to squelch. This kingdom has no hold-back in it. There will be no squelching of it. There’s no reducing of it. It’s unmitigatable in power and wonder and glory.

Now the remnant of Judah is terrified. King Ahaz is their king. His immediate enemy, the northern kingdom and Syria, have formed an alliance and while they’ve lived under threats forever, now literally their enemies are camped at the gate. So tiny remnant Judah which represents God’s remnant church, the true church, is threatened with extinction, if you will, and the Bible tells us in Isaiah 7:2, ” When it was reported to the house of David, saying, ‘The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,’ his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.” That’s how terrified they are. Is there security, they’re wondering, is there hope? Is God there? Are we gonna make it? And God gives this passage, “Well, a child will be born to you, a son will be given. The government will rest on His shoulders,” and on and on we’ll go.

So God’s strongest words of encouragement to them, as we’ll see in Isaiah 9 here, is a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. Not a mighty warrior, not a powerful king but a child, a son. You see, God makes his strength and power known in what appears to us to be weakness. For example, when Jesus goes to the cross, to man that appeared weak. He was humiliated. He was shamed. But in the cross both his and our enemies are defeated. His weakness was actually strength. Yet in the promise of a child here, a promise of a son, there is a great and powerful note of assurance, a great and power note of security because a child speaks of that deep, sweet, familial love. There’s just nothing like that. I think that’s why the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet to write it that way. He wants you to get the note of there’s a deep, sweet love for you from your heavenly Father. A child evokes that. The deep, sweet love of a child and what that stirs up in us is really beyond words, is it not? And so what God is saying to ancient Judah and what he’s saying to King Ahaz and what he’s saying to his church today is this, “I want you to know I have a deep, sweet love for you, and in that deep, sweet love, you know I’m going to protect you. I’m going to secure you. I’m going to bring you the victory and you can rest securely knowing that I love you in this way.”

Jeremiah 31:3 has just increasingly become such a powerful encouragement to me when the prophet says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Let me say it again: perhaps the greatest assurance we have that God will never stop loving us is that God never started loving us. He said, “I’ve always loved you and not just loved you as the image of the child evokes in us, I’ve loved you with a deep, sweet love.” I think too often we separate God off in an austere way and impersonal way and we forget that, “For God so loved the world.”

That deep, sweet love God has for you, my friend, for his church in general, is a God- sized love. It has a God-sized depth to it. It has a God-sized height to it. It has a God- sized width to it. And it’s all fueled with a God-empowered zeal to protect us, to preserve us, to secure us, to keep us. So here we see the child, “a child will be born to us,” Isaiah 9 say, “a son will be given to us.” This is Jesus but in this text, it shows him as, indeed, a mighty King. It shows him as the world’s Ruler and his kingdom will bring him glory and will bring eternal security, protection and blessedness to his children.

So in Isaiah 9:6 and 7, let’s look afresh at the unmitigatable power, wonder and glory of the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. So let’s unpack these two verses together this morning, all right? First of all, verse 6, he says, “and the government shall be upon His shoulders.” The divine Sovereign will ascend the throne and become heaven and earth’s divine monarch. He is both the unopposed and unmovable King of heaven and earth and he rules both the seen and the unseen world, and all authority rests in him forevermore. Psalm 2:1-3 tells us, “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!'” The first phrase there, “Why are the nations in an uproar,” the point there is that there’s no reason for the nations to rage or have an uproar or to revolt because it’s futility. When the King takes the throne, there will be no raging against him. It’s really a figure of speech, I think, because there’s no raging or resisting his authority. It’s complete futility.

But when it says “the government will rest on His shoulders,” one of the points I’m convinced is, is that the prophet is saying, “This is where the Immanuel child ends up. This is what will become of Him and this is what will become of us, His children.” Revelation 21:3-5 also summarizes the culmination of the Immanuel child theme. In Revelation 21:3-5, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.'”

One other powerful implication of the government resting on his shoulders is that unlike all others who have come before him, he’s actually up to the task. He can handle it. You can put it on his shoulders because he can bear it. He and he alone is the one who is able to establish a just and righteous government and to maintain it for perpetuity. The kings of the great empires of history are vivid illustrations that he’s the only one. We can go back to the Pharaohs of Egypt, to the kings of ancient Assyria and Babylon, the Caesars of the great Roman Empire, the kings of the Islamic empires, the kings of the Mogul Empire, the kings of the British Empire, the emperor of Japan, Stalin, Lenin, Mao of Communist dictatorships, Hitler of Nazi Germany, and any President of the United States, and all compared to Christ failed at the task. All of them did not and could not establish lasting justice and peace in the earth. All of their empires or kingdoms crumbled or will crumble but the opposite of true of Christ and his future kingdom. Just as he put the massive cross upon his shoulders and secured our redemption, proving he was up to the task, so Christ will take the pillars of earth’s government upon himself and he will prove he is up to the task. The government will be on his shoulders and what a sweet and wonderful and blessed day that will be for us.

Child of God, could I just leave my notes and exhort you for a second? That’s your hope. Doesn’t matter what’s gonna happen in this world, this is the world that’s coming for us. This is what ends up being the reality of earth. This is where the child comes to and we come to it with him.

Now we come to the rest of the two verses and we come to several descriptive titles that amplify the superiority of his coming rule. First of all, the Bible says here he’s a Wonderful Counselor, or as the scholars point out, it means a wonder of a counselor. His wisdom in leading his kingdom will be immensely wonderful. He will manage the world with wisdom like the world has ever, never known. If you were to ask the man on the street in that day, “What do you think of Christ’s reign?” Words would actually fail him. He would just say, “It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful.” Colossians 2:3 reminds him, us that in him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” You see, his wisdom is God’s wisdom, it’s divine wisdom. It’s so superior to those who only know the world’s wisdom that they cannot comprehend it.

Think about his wisdom. His wisdom is what taught us that weakness is strength. The baby is born, weakness, but that was God’s strength. He goes to a cross, weakness, but that was God’s strength. That’s God’s wisdom. His wisdom taught us that surrender is victory. He surrendered to the cross following the will of his heavenly Father and there he brought the victory. We surrender to the Lordship of Christ, the world says that’s weakness, be your own man, be your own strength, exalt your own rights, but in surrender we find victory. Oh, what wisdom he has. His wisdom is true wisdom, it’s God’s wisdom, and in his kingdom we’ll prosper in blessedness under his wisdom.

But not only that, secondly, the text says he’s Mighty God. Mighty God. Notice it doesn’t say in the text just God but Mighty God. This is another biblical proclamation that Christ is, in effect, God himself. This asserts the deity of Jesus Christ. He’s not just kind of like God or similar to God, he is Mighty God.

Think about the fact that we, his children, have so many formidable enemies. There’s enemies everywhere, sickness and sorrow and loss and heartaches seem to abound, and Satan opposes us, and death threatens us, and hell and the grave look us in the face to intimidate us, and here we stand and we’re aware of our guilt and we’re aware of our sin and the condemnation, and yet the judgment that ought to come to us, yet we’re reminded that our security and eternal blessedness rests in one who is the Mighty God. Think about that. Our problems are so much that we must have a God-sized solution and we have one. God is our Savior. That’s why the writer said in Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” The point being if God has come as your Savior, what can conquer or, or, or void that, or negate that in any way, shape or fashion? He is the Mighty God. He can handle all of our enemies and keep us safe for eternity.

Then the text says in verse 6, look at it there, he’s the Everlasting Father or the Eternal Father. This speaks to the endless cessation of the ages. In other words, listen, he’s our Father forever. Love that. He’s our Father forever. Now the kings and the rulers of the ages, generally speaking, set themselves up at the father of their people. Now we don’t think that way in America so much about our leadership but the old world still thinks that way. I was in South Africa many years ago with Harold Peasley, our missionary there, and he was driving me out to a, a, a tribal church to preach and Bill Clinton had just been elected President and Harold said something, I never thought he’d say something like this. He said, “Can you believe that you traded Barbara Bush for Hillary Clinton as the mother of the country?” And I thought, “Wow, I never thought of it that way.” But he’s, he’s of English descent and he still thinks that way. He doesn’t mean in power or authority like a queen or something, he meant but that’s the figurehead, that’s, that’s what the President is. He’s the father of your country and his wife is like the mother of your country. Well, that’s the way it was viewed in the old days. That’s why this is called, he’s called the Everlasting or the Eternal Father.

All of the kings of all of the peoples of all of the ages failed to be the faithful fathers of their people they’re supposed to be, and even the best of rulers were flawed and lacked sufficient wisdom and power to keep the people in perpetual security and in peace. And far too many kings throughout the ages or whatever ruler they might be, succumbed to the temptations of power and wealth and would oppress their people for their own selfish indulgence. We see a little of that in our world, do we not? The people therefore lived in constant dread. If they had a good king, they knew that one day he would die and who knows what his successor will be like. But that’s not this King. This is the King who has divine wisdom and he’s always good and he cannot die.

He’s the Everlasting Father. He is of such uprightness and goodness that everything he does is for his own glory and that is exactly what brings his people the most genuine good and ever-increasing joy. Jesus will be the ruling King of earth and his rule will be such that we will enjoy unmitigated security and peace and we will flourish under his wisdom and with great gladness that will never end because he is the Everlasting Father. Revelation 11:15 again, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” The Everlasting Father.

Well, the prophet goes on and he gives us the next phrase, the Prince of Peace. He’s the Prince of Peace. Now don’t forget the context here. Here’s Ahaz and his people who are shaking like the wind, the Bible says, shakes the trees, terrified but they’re getting assurance through the prophecies of what Christ will do for them one day. So what a powerful encouragement this must have been. You see, not only did Judah live under the anxiety of threats most of her existence, now again the enemy is right at her gate, war is imminent, captivity, or at least occupation awaits them, and in their dread God gives this powerful message, “A baby’s coming. A son will be born to you and this one will grow up and usher in an era of peace but not just any era of peace but eternal peace, for He is indeed the Prince of Peace.”

He comes in peace and he establishes peace and this not by human terms of squashing all that oppose him but he comes in this transparent vulnerability, this, this child is born. A transparent vulnerability which, which makes defiance pointless and he will first reconcile man with God and that will enable man to be reconciled with man in this kingdom. And his peace is not like the peace accords of men, peace accords which are not as enduring as the paper they’re written upon. His peace is of such truth and of such enduring nature that he is rightly called the Prince of Peace.

Now I don’t want us to miss a practical implication for us in the here and now and that is that he’s our Prince of Peace now. He’s our Prince of Peace now. He’s the means of our inner peace. He dwells within us as we yield to his government in our hearts and experience Philippians 4:7, a peach, peace rather which surpasses comprehension. How can you, child of God, face what this world is becoming, look at what is going on around us and yet have a, a settled peace? Only one way: inside our hearts reigns the Prince of Peace.

He gives us that inner peace. We’re assaulted on every side, failures, sins, accusations, denunciations, condemnations, all of these and many more assail us and try to rob us of our peace, but as we surrender to the Almighty Christ, he brings peace. He’s the great forgiver of sin, where sin abounds, his grace does much more abound. Your sin as dark and ugly and vile as it is, is no match for his grace, grace that is greater than all our sins, the Bible says.

Then one day in the future – listen to me – one day in the future the outward condition will finally match and be balanced with our inward condition and the entire world will rest on his shoulders and there will be peace, true inner and outer peace, and that includes peace in the world of nature. You know, Romans tells us that all of creation groans waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. There’s a sense in which creation itself knows that things will not be made right until God perfects his church and glorifies her and then there will be a glorification in all the created order, and the Bible says in those days the lion will lay down with the lamb. And the Bible tells us that men will hammer their, their swords and their spears into plowshares and – listen – the Bible says and they will learn war no more because he’s the Prince of Peace.

Well, the prophet continues on, verse 7, ” There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace.” It’s, it’s, it’s just like can it get any better? And the prophet says, oh, you just wait. It’s just gonna get a lot better because of all the wonders and the goodnesses of his reign in his kingdom, there’s another factor that you’ve got to take in and that is that it never diminishes, it always increases. Not only is it unmitigatable, it’s always increasing. No end to the increase. You know, every government of man that ever existed had foundations made of unstable materials and they were founded on unsound cornerstones. So from the moment these nations came into existence, they begin to fail but the government of our Lord and our Messiah is exactly the opposite, the foundation of his kingdom is righteousness and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone, and from the moment of its founding, it does not begin to fail but the opposite is true, it continuously strengthens and increases for all of perpetuity. All the kingdoms of this world are fickle and changing but not his.

His is unchangeable and eternal. I believe this increase includes the church age that we’re presently in, that all over the world God is building his local churches and they’re growing and souls are saved and they’re being built. So it’s increasing and increasing and this will continue into the glorified state when he’ll bring all those local churches together and they’ll be [inaudible] perfected church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then from that moment onward, we will continue to increase in the glories and the wonders and the wisdom that make up that kingdom that we will be in and it will never decline. It always is increasing. Powerful thing.

The prophet continues on in chapter 9, verse 7, and he says also upon “the throne of David.” Upon the throne of David. Now, once again, when we get to chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, we’re constantly reminded – now remember what I told you about Old Testament, uh, prophecies concerning Christ, there’s almost always a temporal limited fulfillment of the prophecy, then there’s a final full fulfillment in Christ. Well, we know Isaiah had a couple of little boys and they were statements of, of truth to the people, but here we see a child is born and as the descriptions of this child unfold we realize this can’t be Isaiah’s boys. This is someone else. There is a higher fulfillment here and we see that because of this statement, again, that he’s on the throne of David. Someone greater than Isaiah’s children are in mind here. This points to another child, another son, and this points to another king.

He will be upon the throne of David but he’s unlike David. This speaks of one who is not just a king among kings in Israel but is the King of kings. He’s the final King. He’s the King to end all kings. He’s a victorious effective king like David yet infinitely better. He’s the descendant of David and will establish the throne of David in a final way. His throne will be based upon holiness and righteousness, not violence and coercion as David’s was. He will be God with us and God ruling over us in eternal justice, righteousness and peace.

And that’s what he continues to say in verse 7, notice it there, and “establish it and uphold it,” now notice, “with justice and righteousness.” What a different kind of kingdom. The justice and righteousness that he’s brought to exist in the hearts of his church, his regenerate ones. You see, justice and righteousness was accounted to us in regeneration. It was credited to us. We stand just and righteous when we’re born again, when we believe on Christ, but all of a sudden he’ll take what he began in our hearts, you see, the kingdom has begun in all of our hearts because the justice is righteousness, and righteousness is there. But once its perfected and this new kingdom is established, then in glorification this justice and righteousness that was realized in us will be realized through us and established in all of the kingdom. Our standing before God which Christ purchased will then be realized in the totality of our being, and then justice and righteousness that is in us will also be coming out of us and all around us, now here, so finally when we get with our Lord in that kingdom, from our inner motives to our outward behavior we will finally serve our Lord perfectly.

You see, that’s what heaven is, that’s what the new kingdom is, you’ll finally serve the Lord perfectly. Can you imagine? I don’t, I don’t know if you’ll get up in the morning, I don’t know, but it’s an anthropomorphic statement, all we can relate to is our human experience. When you get up in the morning in the eternal kingdom, every moment of every day, every desire, ambition, emotion of the inner man will be to serve your Lord perfectly because justice and righteousness that’s begun in us will come to fruition in us and flow out of us, and it’ll fill all the kingdom and it will make us immensely happy.

He’ll establish it with justice and righteousness and it can never reverse. It’ll always be increasing. It can never deteriorate. This is part of what Zacharias meant when he beheld Christ right after his birth and Zacharias wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:74 and 75 that this one is, “To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear.” Now think about that, in that kingdom we’ll serve him without fear. Won’t have to wonder, “Yeah, but earlier today I wasn’t thinking righteous thoughts.” Won’t be any of that, there will be no fear. We’ll fully, wholly serve him without fear, “In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”

You say, “Pastor, that’s, uh, that’s pretty amazing. How’s that gonna come about?” Well, look at the last phrase there, verse 7, “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” Oh, my goodness. The great great frustration, the great great humiliation of my preaching ministry is to not contain the vocabulary to preach the wonders and the glories of our Lord and his kingdom.

“The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” This kingdom will be established by God’s might, not man’s might. The word “zeal” here is very akin to the word “jealousy.” Matter of fact, we see that word used in the Old Testament, God’s a jealous God, but not the petty jealousies that we know and fall in mankind. This, this is, this is God who has a jealous passion that his will be established in contradiction to all other wills, that his way be seen for what it is, holy and true and right. His zeal, a passion to see that it’s done and finished. And hallelujah to his name, his zeal to see this accomplished includes as a core part – now listen to me – that you and I are there perfected, blessed and with him for eternity. He has a zeal is to see that that happens.

So God’s jealousy, God’s passion to accomplish the advancing of his own will and his own glory and to advancing the good of his children utilizing the depth, width and length of his power and wisdom, God is consumed with this end. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are throwing the totality of their being into seeing that this is accomplished. Power. You know, when you think, when you think about these truths and you think about somebody could possibly even utter the possibility that you and I have a part of achieving our salvation, what in heaven’s name are you gonna add to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit throwing the totality of their being into making sure you get there, and they are glorified and you are preserved forever? Can’t add anything to that.

God would not, God will not allow his people to drift from one false lover to another. With holy zeal he will pursue his church, redeem her, cleanse her, restore her to himself, and establish her in his government that she finds her all in him. And someone says if God said, “I put My heart on you from eternity past,” no, it is as if God says that, “and I’m going to work on you until one day you love Me with every part of your being. I’m going to court you. I’m going to woo you. I’m going to draw you. I’m going to impress you. I’m going to let these imperfect preachers preach My glories to you so that slowly your heart is more and more one, and then one day when I perfect you, you’re gonna love Me with the totality of your being. My zeal is to see that that happens.” Man can’t write this stuff. This, this could only be a divine book.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will see that this is done. Calvin said, “God is aflame with an uncommon and extraordinary desire to promote the salvation of the church.” Noblit said, “God is aflame with white hot zeal to save, secure, glorify, and establish His church in both time and eternity.” and all of this is going to be accomplished through God’s appointed anointed one, Jesus Christ, through the child born to them, through the son given for them, through the kingdom that he will establish for them where he will reign with them in justice and righteousness forever.

I was, had a movie recommended to me some years ago and neither I nor the brother that recommended the movie would say it’s a recommended movie necessarily but it did have a very good point. In this movie, a, a father, I don’t think the movie spells it out but he was something of a retired CIA specially trained assassin, bad guy, tough guy. And he’s sort of in his retirement years or just entering upon them and his teenage daughter goes on a trip to Europe and while she’s in Europe she is abducted by human traffickers. Through his contacts and his vast past experience, he finds out who the immediate human traffickers are who have, have his daughter in, in their custody and he gets one of them on the phone and here’s what he says, “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you’re looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money but what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare to people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you. I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you and I will find you and I will kill you.”

As the movie unfolds, this guy kills one after another, after another of these human traffickers and he leaves a trail of carnage and bloodshed behinds him until he finally finds his daughter and rescues her and brings her home. That’s a father’s love. That’s unrelenting love. That’s courageous love. But as they get together at the end, you know what you kind of sense? No, that’s a deep, sweet love. His zeal drove him to do whatever it took. That’s what the prophet means when he says “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” Anyone or anything that gets in the way of our Christ securing his children will be done away with. It will come to pass driven by the passion of the deep, sweet love of God for his children.

The unmitigatable power, wonder and glory of the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. One other real quick thought. The reason why you have to be there is that if you’re not there, then he’s failed in some way of securing the kingdom the way he meant to and he’s not going to because his zeal will bring it to pass.