Dr. James White: Isaiah's Witness To The Incarnation | Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7

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Turn with me, please to the prophecy of Isaiah the book of Isaiah We will be looking at some very familiar texts and some maybe not as familiar texts in this tremendous work

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I had the Privilege in 2018 to visit the land of Israel.

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I've only been there once But on one of those days I Stood in front of cave one of the

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Qumran caves the cave in which the Isaiah scroll had been discovered and That is a scroll that You can view today in very high -resolution photography if you desire to do so on the the

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Internet It is a copy of the prophecy of Isaiah from it at least a hundred years prior to the birth of Christ and So you can see all these words as they had been written

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Has they existed? Prophetically awaiting fulfillment

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And in fact had been written 700 years prior to the time of Christ and While we do not have manuscripts going back 700 years prior to Christ.

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We might someday you never know We know that these words were written before their fulfillment

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They were prophetic and we have to deal with that reality. We have to Engage and think upon that reality and when we think about the

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Advent season we think about the coming of Christ We are confronted with the reality that we have a

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God Who is in total and complete control of his creation?

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So much so that hundreds of years prior to events he can say this is what

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I'm going to do This is what I'm going to accomplish And when we think about that, we recognize that to say think think about today

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What could you say? About what will take place in?

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the year 2723 What could you possibly say?

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Because there is so much uncertainty and any event any event amongst human beings

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That would take place in 2723 the number of choices

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That men would have to make men and women would have to make in their

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Interactions with one another between now and then would be myriads upon myriads

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Millions and billions and trillions of said decisions all impacting one another

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So what kind of a God is? Able to give us prophetic scripture.

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There you go participation Now, I don't know if I have actually brought this study in our church before I looked through I spent quite some time scrolling

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You know, we have a lot of stuff online that may shock some of you but you go to to apologia studios on YouTube and there's a lot of content there and I tried to limit it with my name and this

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Jeff Durbin guy kept coming up all over the place I couldn't couldn't get rid of him. It's just it's just amazing.

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I couldn't find where I had given this study I've given this study elsewhere and my concern was

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That I I find this particular study to be incredibly encouraging and personally edifying at the at the period of the

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Christmas season and Yet very often. I've wondered have I given this only to other people and not our own people so if I have

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First of all, allow me to apologize. But secondly Most people don't remember what we preached last

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Christmas And so my hope is honestly that you will remember this one and I think you'll see why once we start working through these texts.

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I think most people go. I'm not gonna forget this This is gonna stick with me at least

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I hope so We know the the key texts in the book of Isaiah Do we not now if we were taught if we were talking about Easter if we were talking about Resurrection Sunday We'd be looking at Isaiah 53 and the suffering servants and and that would that would just pop out at us.

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Yes But when we think about this time of year There are two primary texts and immediately pop into all of our minds

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Because they're on all the Christmas cards on the refrigerator Or in my house, we have one of these little

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I don't think we got out this year but one of these little Christmas tree thingies that you can stick cards in and and Take a look who has sent you and we just don't do as many cards as we used to do

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Let's just be honest. That was I think of my mom and I think of the fact that she started the week after Thanksgiving and with her beautiful cursive handwriting

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Started writing all those Christmas cards to people all over the United States and and even using the the little candle you know and you drop a little wax on the back and you take the the

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W -signet that you have and you squish it in there and and it would it would dry hard.

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I thought that was awesome gummed up every postal machine from here to Michigan You probably not even allowed to do it anymore.

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I imagine but that was that was the Christmas season But all those Christmas cards man, what did they have on them?

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Isaiah 7 14? Emmanuel God with us right and then

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Isaiah chapter 9 Unto us a child is born unto us the

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Son is given So we know the text and that's the danger The danger is we know that specific

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Text and we think we know everything about it because we've heard it spoken about over and over and over again

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But there's something much more about the book of Isaiah Because when you look at Isaiah chapter starting in Isaiah chapter 6

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And you start walking through you you discover that there is a theme there is a repetitive theme that is found in in Prophecies that for many people today seem

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Disjointed we don't know a lot about the historical backgrounds. And so When we read the prophets very often we move through entire sections and we just our eyes glaze over who are what these various cities and and Nations and we just we don't necessarily know what was going on and we go.

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Well, it's God's Word I'll just wait till I get to the part. That's really relevant to me And as a result, we miss something.

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I want to remind you It has always struck me that one of the very first things that our risen

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Lord did Upon encountering the disciples was to do what? to direct their minds to the scriptures

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Walking on the road to Emmaus those first two disciples. What does

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Jesus do? He talks to them about how from Moses all the way through the prophets

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They had testified of him and he had to open their minds

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So they could see same thing happens when he meets with the Apostles He up braids them for not having believed what had been said about him from Moses All the way through the prophets he opened their minds to understand the scripture and I've often thought oh,

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I would love to have been in those those post -resurrection Jesus led

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Bible studies from the Old Testament, wouldn't that be awesome? But the fact is we can pretty much know

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What was said during that time period? How so well read the sermons in the book of Acts?

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Read the epistles see how the Apostles quote from the

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Old Testament scriptures and make application to Christ and When we keep that as a background we start looking at Isaiah Something all of a sudden starts coming up in this first portion of the prophecy.

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I direct your mind to chapter 6 the chapter 6

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We've talked about this one before one of my favorite passages in all scripture. I've preached on it many times and You know that what is key in Isaiah chapter 6 is

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The utilization of this text in the New Testament You know that in most of your

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Bibles it says in the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up with the train of his robe filling the temple and You know that then you see the worship of God holy, holy, holy is

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Yahweh of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and Then you you have

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Isaiah's response. Woe is me. I am ruined I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king

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Yahweh of hosts and then you have the commissioning of Isaiah as A prophet and yet he's sent with a message of condemnation a message of judgment

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Indeed, it's such severe judgment in verse 11. Isaiah says Lord How long

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I? Can just imagine what that was at first he's excited I'm gonna be sent as a prophet and then he's given the message he's to deliver and I I can't tell from the

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Hebrew Exactly what his tone of voice was it might have been how long

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I think that would have fit and Then even then until the cities are devastated without Inhabitant houses without people on the land is devastated to desolation.

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It was not a positive message But we know

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That this text is cited in the New Testament It's cited in John chapter 12 and it's cited in the context of the end of Jesus's public ministry

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There are two passages from Isaiah that are quoted there Remember the

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Greeks come seeking Jesus, but Jesus doesn't meet with them He doesn't reveal himself to them They want to meet with him and he says no the times not right

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This judgment must take place first And there are two passages quoted

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Isaiah 53 the suffering servant. We know that this is fulfilled in Jesus and then

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Isaiah 6 and John makes the comment in John 12 41 these things

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Isaiah said because he saw his glory and he spoke about him Now when did

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Isaiah see Jesus's glory? Well, it's interesting in Isaiah 6 1 the

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Hebrew Masoretic text says the train of his robe was filling the temple, but what's interesting is

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The Greek translation of the Old Testament and Isaiah 6 1 has a variant a different reading

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And it literally says that his glory Was filling the temple

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Now you could make a connection between the two if you want to that's not the point here The point is you see in verse 6 1

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I saw the Lord sitting on a throne And if you ask

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Isaiah Isaiah Whose glory did you see Isaiah's responses? I saw the glory of Yahweh In fact, that's you know, verse 3.

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Holy. Holy. Holy is Yahweh of hosts. The old earth is full of his glory But if you ask

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John John whose glory did Isaiah see John's answer is Jesus It fits perfectly with John's theology

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He is the monogamous. They asked the unique God who reveals the father who makes the father known

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John 1 18 Thomas is gonna call him his Lord and his God and Jesus gonna say

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Because you've seen me if you believe Thomas blessed are those who did not see and yet believed and so we have this reference in Isaiah chapter 6

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To one who sits on the throne and yet in The New Testament we have a revelation

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That he has come amongst us and it's the very next chapter now remember chapters

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There were no chapters in the Isaiah scroll found in Qumran cave 1

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Chapter divisions came about during the medieval period Verse divisions came about in 1551 if you want to write that one down and amaze your friends during the

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Christmas holiday when you win at Bible trivia so these

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Were just a matter of verses later You have beginning of verse 10 the sign of Emanuel now

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Emanuel is a Hebrew phrase L you're familiar with God Emanuel means with us with us

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Emanuel God with us and You'll notice the context in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 10 when

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Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz saying Ask a sign for yourself from Yahweh your

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God Make it deep as Shaol or high as heaven, but Ahaz said

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I will not ask and I will not test Yahweh Then he said listen now a house of David Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my

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God as Well Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign

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Behold, the Virgin will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name

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Emanuel He will eat curds and honey in order that he will know to refuse evil and choose good

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For before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken

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Yahweh will bring on you and on your people and on your father's house days which have never come since the days of Ephraim Separated from Judah the king of Assyria now you need to know something we normally only quote one little section and we don't quote it in its context and that's somewhat dangerous because Other people will come along And they will say look you need to understand this has nothing to do with Jesus Because it says right there.

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There is a boy and he is going to be born and he will be called

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Emanuel and Before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken

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How is that fulfilled in Jesus and they will also make the claim that the term?

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Translated virgin Alma is not the technical term for virgin the

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Hebrew language It is a more general term for a young woman And so say see all this is is all the sign that was given to a has was that in about nine months the kings that you dread

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Will no longer be a threat to you. That's all it's about. That's all it's about Now where'd the term virgin come from well in the

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Greek translation of the Old Testament the Greek Septuagint The term that is translated here

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The Hebrew terms called is Alma and you'll probably recognize the

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Greek Greek translation Parthenos, where have you heard that term before? well, the Parthenon is

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The Is connected with Greek religion and worship at that time with Virgins it is a technical term

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Parthenos means a virgin and the Greeks knew what a virgin was

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Luke uses it and Luke was a physician. So Luke knew what terminology he was using and So the

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New Testament writers and the translators the Septuagint understand this term to refer to a virgin and that means they understood that Isaiah was making that kind of a connection that this was going to be a supernatural birth

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But what we must understand here in this text is dual fulfillment

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We have two fulfillments. There is a in time in the days of a has fulfillment

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But as with almost every other messianic prophecy With almost any other messianic text there is a greater film fulfillment that goes beyond and here's the problem when modern

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Theologians from the progressive left Come to this book They don't believe they are under any obligation

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For chapter 7 to have anything to do with chapter 6 They don't believe this has anything to do with they don't have they don't believe that Isaiah is going to be consistent with Luke Or that Isaiah is even to be consistent with Isaiah because you go to any local

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Bible College Unfortunately, and you will be introduced to the idea that the prophecy of Isaiah ends in chapter 39

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Chapters 40 and following including the suffering servant passage is due to row

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Isaiah that comes later. You know why? Because it contains prophecy it talks about Cyrus by name and we all know there can't be prophecy

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We all know that no one could have known who Cyrus was Until after it happened, so it must have been written later.

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You see There can't be prophecy in other words They don't view scripture the way

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Jesus did and so they would look at a passage like this and and they would miss the deeper

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Later fulfillment because they can't see What you see in all of Isaiah?

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So just keep that in mind for a moment and let me show you how this fits together So we have Isaiah 6 we have

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Isaiah 7 we come to Isaiah chapter 8 and it's like Hmm what's an

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Isaiah chapter 8 that is connected with Jesus. Well, it's interesting and you probably haven't necessarily run into this one before and In Isaiah chapter 8 verse 11

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For thus Yahweh spoke to me with a strong hand and disciplined me not to walk in the way of this people saying

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You are not to say it is a conspiracy In regard to all this people call a conspiracy and you are not to fear what they fear and you shall not tremble

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It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy and he shall be your fear and he shall be your cause of trembling sound familiar

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It actually should be But because it's in the middle of a citation elsewhere, we don't necessarily see it in verse 12

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You begin to see what Peter quotes in 1st

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Peter chapter 3 verses 14 and Here's the key 15 and That's in an exhortation to Christians who are under persecution

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That they are to not fear Those who are troubling them

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But instead they're to do what? Well, we all know the passage

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Because our church is named after this passage It's mispronounced but it's still named after this passage

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Because Peter is quoting from Isaiah chapter 8

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Do not fear what they fear and notice what verse 13 says it is

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Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy You go to 1st

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Peter chapter 3 but treat Christ as Lord set him apart treat him as holy in your heart

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Always being ready to give an answer to anyone who asked you for a reason for the hope that's within you.

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That's the text and So when it says you are to treat

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Christ as Lord Lord, there is kudos Kudos is the translation of Yahweh at the beginning of verse 13

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Peter is taking a passage about Yahweh of hosts and applying it to the

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Messiah Jesus That's often missed when we apologists when we speak on 1st

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Peter chapter 3 verse 15 we skip that part I Did for years and years and years until I looked at the background of the passage

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The reason because everyone ever noticed 1st Peter 3 15 says that you should be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you

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Why would anyone ask you of the hope that's within you? because when you treat Christ as Yahweh in your hearts, it completely changes all of your priorities and your worldview if If God himself in the person of his son has invaded time that changes everything and His followers will respond to difficulty and Trials in a different way in such a different way that people will ask them

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Where is the source of the hope that's within you? And so here?

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Peter Who heard those Bible studies after the resurrection? Quotes from Isaiah not

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Isaiah chapter 8 in The context of exhorting all believers to set

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Christ as Yahweh Sanctify Christ treat him as holy as Yahweh in your hearts changes everything changes everything

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So there's your chapter 8 connection. We'll come back to the chapter 9 connection.

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You know what it is verses 6 and 7 What would be after that?

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Is it just those passages? No Chapter 10 is a fascinating chapter.

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I hope it's one that you have contemplated on very often because Beginning in verse 5 it gives us the one of the most clear

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Old Testament texts on how God's sovereignty Interfaces with man's responsibility

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It's that story of God using the Assyrians those pagans those evil men

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To do what to fulfill the curses and blessings of the

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Mosaic Law and to punish the people of Israel and then When the

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Lord is done using a Syria to punish Israel He will then punish the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria Because of The righteous judgment that comes upon him as a pagan thinking he's in charge of his own destiny

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You should read it. You should read it But after all of that is our next connection beginning in verse 20

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Now it will be in that day that the remnant of Israel and those the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them but will truly rely on Yahweh the

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Holy One of Israel a Remnant will return the remnant of Jacob to El Gabor the mighty

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God keep that phrase in mind For though your people Oh Israel may be like the sand of the sea only a remnant within them will return a

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Destructive end is decreed Overflowing with righteousness for a complete destruction one that is decreed

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Lord Yahweh of hosts will do in the midst of the whole land now Where have you heard about the remnant?

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the remnant Well, you've heard about the remnant in Romans chapter 9

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When the Apostle says as has he completely Done away with his people know a remnant will return and what it and we and will believe in whom in Jesus in the one who has come

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And so here you have your New Testament connection to chapter 10 And there'll be just one more for now chapter 11 is sort of obvious because it begins

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Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit

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The spirit of Yahweh will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh and he would delight in the fear of Yahweh and He will not judge by what his eyes see to render a decision by what his ears hear

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But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with a brightness for the afflicted of the earth

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And he will strike the earth the rod of his mouth when the breath of his lips He will put the wicked to death.

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Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins and Faithfulness the belt about his waist

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Passages that are picked up by the New Testament writers in numerous Different contexts and applications

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That are made very very clear to us. These are prophet prophetic words about the ministry of Christ and of course even

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The rod of his mouth striking the earth the route of his mouth breath of his lips so on and so forth

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So what do we see here? We see this this phrase this one this

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Emmanuel God with us And in fact, it's interesting sometimes the translations will go ahead and render it as God with us and sometimes

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I'll put Emmanuel And so you don't you don't even necessarily see How often this phraseology ends up appearing in the text of Isaiah?

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So with that as our context We're in the middle of a passage of Scripture that plainly

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Plainly the Lord Jesus opened up to the Apostles. This is a part of Jesus rebuking them and saying why are you so slow to believe what has been testified concerning me?

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Well here we have it and we have these words beginning in verse 6 of chapter 9

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For a child will be born to us a son will be given to us And the government will rest on his shoulders

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His name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God eternal

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Father Prince of Peace There will be no end of the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom

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To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this

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Now think with me Briefly and what this text is telling us a

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Child will be born to us a son will be given to us now. I cannot prove in Debate level proof that what

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I'm about to share with you is dogmatically required for you to believe But I think it has a real good

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Chance of being what we should be seeing in the first Two phrases in verse 6 because in the

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Hebrew language Hebrew language is something called Hebrew parallelism most of Semitic languages do this and It is a poetic mechanism whereby you rephrase the preceding phrase in new words to fill it out to make it deeper to make it more

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Colorful, you'll see this in this in the Psalms all the time. And so it's possible that when it says a child be born to us the

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Sun will be given to us that this is just a it's poetic poetic repetition but it's also possible that for a child born to us that is the

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Standard term for something that happens around here a lot It's simple natural childbirth, it's the term

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Yalad and So it's a it's a it's actually repeated twice a child a

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Yellid will be Yalad to you a Child be born anyone who would read that would just understand that is

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Child's being born. It's it's it's a natural childbirth and Jesus truly was born.

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That's one of the great concerns of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church Because if you understand the doctrine of what's called the perpetual virginity of Mary Which you hear a lot about from Roman Catholics this time of year.

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They believe that Jesus's birth was not a natural birth if you understand the dogma of the

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Roman Catholic Church, and I've I've debated this one with Roman Catholics and They defended it and I can direct you to the specific

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Statements found in dogmatic sources again, who knows what Francis believes but leaving him aside for the moment the historical belief the

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Roman Catholic Church is That Mary remained a virgin even in the giving of birth now if you know anything about female anatomy that ain't possible and So when we ask where did this come from?

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Well, it didn't come from Scripture. We know that Where'd it come from? The earliest source we can identify is something called the proteo

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Evangelium of James The proteo Evangelium of James now, I'm not gonna spend the time to read

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Gnostic heresy to you in the middle of the church service here. I've read it on the dividing line You can go listen to it if you want

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You can go to gnosis org if you want to look up all this heresy and read it for yourself But this

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Gnostic document and the Gnostics didn't believe Jesus had a literal physical body

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Because that would have denigrated him. They believed that the physical realm was evil. Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and So the proteo

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Evangelium of James and describing the birth of Jesus It says that there is a a flash of blinding light and all of a sudden

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Mary wasn't pregnant anymore and there's a baby in the manger and There he is

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Some of you ladies are going that sounds pretty good to me actually you know summer labored with Clementine for with Clementine for 44 hours a

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Flash -of -light would have been a whole lot nicer. No two ways about it. Yeah, but that's not a natural birth

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And if Jesus isn't really born as a man then he cannot die as our substitute

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It's amazing What has developed from outside sources not from Scripture?

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Within the theology and teaching of the Roman Catholic Church today Which is why they deny the sufficiency of Scripture to define what we must believe day feed a by faith

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It's dangerous and a false doctrine Not only opposed to Scripture here but opposed to plain testimony of Scripture regarding Jesus's brothers and sisters so a

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Child we born to us. Jesus is truly born as a man, but then it says a son

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Will be Nathan given to us The term

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Nathan from the Hebrew term to give a son given to us now.

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I'm not saying That the Specific identification of father son and spirit is to be found in the

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Old Testament I know there are some people who believe that I don't think that that's actually fully defensible There are prophetic references that with the light of the

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New Testament. We can look back and go. Ah, okay We see that there So I'm not saying the son but a son will be given

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To us this is in the context if we allow Isaiah to be Isaiah. What's what's the term found?

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Emmanuel God with us the Virgin giving birth a

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Son will be given to us. He is a child born but he is a son given and The government will rest on his shoulders.

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This is a Continuing prophecy you see it in verse 7. This is the the

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Davidic Kingdom No end of the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and hold

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It with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore We could start really preaching

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Eschatology here, but I leave that to Jeff He wants to you want to get up and just kick off with it.

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Okay. No, you're too tired. I woke you up I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for that Here the poor man.

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He has not been able to sleep with the girls and He's practicing being able to sit there with his eyes open fully asleep, and I woke him up.

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I am so sorry I I really feel badly now. I really do The government will rest on his shoulders

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This is the one who is the fulfillment of the prophecies and so in Hebrew thought his name reflects his character his name reflects who he is and So what is his name?

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Some people some believe that wonderful and counselor should be taken as two separate things

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Others as a singular It does seem that the others mighty

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God eternal father prince of peace or be taken as Singular, so it's probably wonderful counselor.

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What would this be connected to? Well You'll notice that it talks about wisdom justice righteousness

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Proverbs 8 talks about God's wisdom It's involvement in creation one who gives insight into who

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God is in a way that no one else ever has he is also called mighty

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God and the phrase there is El Gabor and I in passing mentioned to you that right across the page literally in most

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Bibles in Isaiah 1021 Yahweh is Identified as El Gabor in the context on the remnant

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The mighty God and you see you must understand that in most commentaries that you would buy today

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People who would be writing on the book of Isaiah Have been taught such a naturalistic understanding of Scripture That they just can't conceive that 700 years before the birth of Christ.

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Anyone could have even suggested That this one to be born would be

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The incarnation of God himself There's an excellent commentary on the

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Old Testament Kyle and Delage, but you got to understand it's steeped in the critical thought of their time period and So there'll be a lot of places where you'll read it and you sort of go

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I'm not sure why they didn't see this out of the other thing there when they get here. I remember Long ago reading their commentary on this text and and sort of smiling

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Because they basically said as Difficult as it is for modern man to conceive.

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We cannot avoid the reality There's something here that seems to be saying prophetically

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The same thing that John is going to say 700 years later and you know, they're struggling with it because in scholarship to say something like that Oh, if you sound like a fundamentalist

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But it's right there he's the mighty God But then there's the problem passage, right eternal father

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Jesus isn't the father or if you've got some oneness relatives coming over for Christmas They'll say oh he definitely is

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So you've got those particular folks They'll glom on to this and others say yeah, this can't be

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Jesus eternal father. Well, we've talked about it many times before the phrase here avi ad father of eternity

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I Believe is fulfilled especially in the beautiful text that Paul writes the

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Church of Colossae When speaking of the Son of God for by him

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We're all things made heaven and earth Principalities powers or media's authorities visible invisible all things created by him and for him

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He is before all things and in him all things Soonest akin they hold together.

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They have their coherence in him in him Because you see in the

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Old Testament Very often when Yahweh is described as father. It's in the context of creation bringing something into existence

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Father of eternity the Creator that's what we have in Colossians chapter 1 and Then we have the

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Tsar Shalom Tsar Shalom the

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Prince of Peace and Surely we must understand

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We must see that Jesus is the one who brings the only means of having true peace with God Having true peace with God Therefore having been justified by faith in that one who gave his life

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We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ He is the

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Prince of Peace He brings peace in the hearts of men and women he brings peace into marriages families communities churches

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Nations when people submit to his rulership

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He is the Prince of Peace This is the prophecy

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That is given to us Here we have the very one

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Who will establish that relationship between his people and their

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God by doing what? By taking away their debt of sin

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This is the description I was recently doing a response to one of our

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Presbyterian friends on the subject of baptism and I I walked through as we have from this pulpit more than once I walked through Jeremiah 31 as it's quoted in Hebrews chapter 8 and when you think about the description there of what

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God does in writing his law upon our hearts and and Forgiving our sins from the least to the greatest.

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They know their God. How did that all happen? It only happens because of the work of the

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Prince of Peace Jesus Christ and so this text has a context

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It is the context of Emmanuel God with us and The world cannot believe this the world the world looks today at the manger scene and By the way, it has been rightly said and I don't want to ruin anyone's

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You know what you got out on your front lawn or something, but in all probability

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When it says there was no room in the inn and The GS was born in a manger if you if you've if you've done some study about homes in that day

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This was David's these were David's kin. That's why he was there remember for the census

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He had relatives there and in that culture David and his pregnant wife would not have been left out in the cold

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They would not have done that there would have been plenty of people in that city That he was related to That would have taken them in So what's it all about?

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Well, if you know anything about the homes they had back then you didn't just take in strangers. You took in your animals, too

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There would be a manger there would be a section where the animals would be in the house with you

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Some of the ladies are going Yes, that's how it worked look at the archaeological evidence of how houses were built in that day there would be that place and So in all probability you had a crowded house and Hence the only place for the child to be laid was in the manger

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That also would mean that there was zip privacy I Like my privacy,

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I'm a Scotsman we like her privacy That's something that only modern man has understood

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Ancient people didn't have privacy If you enjoy it, like I do Count your blessings

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God God allowed you to be be born at the right time. Shall we say? So in all probability, that's what takes place in the birth

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And so these shepherds are coming to a house and So lots of people are going what's going on here?

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This is very strange They're speaking of an angelic announcement

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And that's what's going on when the Prince of Peace enters into this world

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What amazing thing? That scriptures Written Hundreds and hundreds of years before the events they described can do so With a deeper consistency when we don't take them as singular text

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We tend to do that and one of the reasons we tend to do that It's made it a lot easier for us to find

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Bible references that we've divided everything up into chapters and verses but it's also

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Given us it's also misled us. We don't seem to see patterns and flows of Argumentation because we'll just stop at one place

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Or pick up at the next place and we won't see how all these things flow together

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Hopefully the next time you look at Isaiah 9 and Last evening

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I Had the opportunity something I've wanted to do for a long time but Kelly and I took the granddaughters to the performance of the

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Messiah by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Chorus up in North Scottsdale and I Was mentioning on the late drive home last night

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That the older I get the more I love the Messiah the more beautiful it becomes

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When the hallelujah chorus begins and we all stand to our feet and no one knows why we do it.

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I Know there's a tradition that some Kings stood when it started and that's why that There's no evidence of that.

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It's a nice story But we still do it. It's scripture set to the most beautiful music.

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I think mankind's ever written and Handel wrote it in 24 days 260 pages of complex orchestration

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That's that's miraculous. It really is and As I listened to these passages this passage is in the

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Messiah the fulfillment passage in Revelation chapter 5 the praise to he who sits on the throne and to the

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Lamb absolute idolatry if Jesus is not Who we have seen him in these passages to be the mighty

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God my heart was thrilled Because I I don't know how many of those very talented performers musicians

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Singers were actually Christians, but it was a wonderful thing To hear the

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Christian gospel being sung so beautifully by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Choir Written in 1741 has been in continuous performance since 1741 that's the only piece of music that you can say that and there was the glorious proclamation of The end there will be no end of his kingdom all of these passages brought to beautiful life

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The world sees Jesus in a manger we by proclaiming the gospel

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Complete the story and that's what scares the world. I'll close with this story

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Years ago. I was a member of the

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North Phoenix Baptist Church still over there It's much much smaller than it used to be.

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The physical building is still as big as it was back then They just don't use it very often and Back then we had 20 ,000 members in that church

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You could only find about 7 ,000 any given Sunday but We boasted 20 ,000 members and we had a huge Choir and orchestra

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Kelly sang in the orchestra. I sang in the youth choir I never never well, I did get to sit in a few times with the adult choir

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But I was one of the sound men I was one of the people that ran sound and then later ran one of the television cameras and One year we did a

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Christmas musical. Well every year we did a Christmas musical. In fact toward the end of our time there

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We did miss the Messiah. It wasn't the complete Messiah, but we did major portions of the

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Messiah But one year we did we were doing I forget what the name of the musical was

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We had a black soloist by name of Ruby Ruby Brown and Man, could she sing?

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Oh my my And she sang a solo called the shadow of the cross

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I Think it's on YouTube. I think if you look up shadow of the cross and Ruby Brown and mpbc.

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I think it might even come up Everything comes up on YouTube. It's sort of scary, isn't it? and what we did is we

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Is that the auditorium sat 4 ,500 people? So it's big

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And what we did is we made a red cutout of the cross and put it in one of the lights and So as she began to saying that sing that song we bring that light up and this red shadow of a cross would fall across the manger

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With the baby Jesus in it and it was a true theological insight

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Consistent with Scripture when Jesus said it is necessary that I go to Jerusalem It's necessary.

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I must go I must die That had been true from the start

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This wasn't plan B plan C plan D the shadow of the cross

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Lay across That manger the very moment

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That child was born that son was given you see the world wants a

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Jesus who is a safe little baby in a manger He's not a threat but the

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Bible demands that we see that he was born the way he was born so he could be who he was and He could give his life on Calvary's tree

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So that all of God's people could be united to him in his death all of God's people in him so that then his resurrection

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Becomes their resurrection and he then ascends into heaven and Daniel chapter 7 describes for us his enthronement and People from every tribe and tongue and people they worship him

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He is given a kingdom and a dominion and that's what the world fears

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They don't fear the baby in the manger until we say to them

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Who he really was if he was just another man if he was just a mighty prophet

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There's no reason to fear But if he was who scripture says he was if he is the one who is enthroned in Daniel chapter 7 worthy of the highest form of worship

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If he is the Lamb standing as a slain in front of the throne in Revelation chapter 5

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Then they recognize of necessity What that must mean they must deal with him.

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They cannot ignore him And so we if we are going to be faithful, we must preach the whole gospel we must tell the whole story and so when we sing the carols and we rejoice at this time of year as Is perfectly right to do?

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We do so seeing the rest of the story Rejoicing in the rest of the story

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Because the only way to truly celebrate The birth of Jesus is if you do so bowing the knee to his lordship

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Confessing him as Savior and Following him taking up your cross and following him.

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That is what it means To truly celebrate this time of year.

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Let's pray together Our gracious Heavenly Father Our glorious triune

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God Father Son and Holy Spirit as We have opened this word and been privileged

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To look into the prophetic word and its fulfillment Our hearts are stirred by your spirit.

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We love to celebrate the breaking into Mankind's experience of the

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Creator himself But we also recognize that what he accomplished is the sole reason we can have peace peace on earth

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How did it come the Son of God gives himself on Calvary Street?

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Father we thank you That we still have the freedom to celebrate openly But we would ask as We think of even that of the many

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Brothers and sisters we have that cannot celebrate openly we pray for them we enter into their suffering as We know they pray for us

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But Lord as we have that privilege May our celebration be pure May our celebration be focused upon your truth

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May we resist the commercialization the secularization

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May we rejoice to proclaim to the world The Lord has come

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And he is now enthroned on high bow the knee to him. May we rejoice that you have caused us

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To come to know him in truth We pray these things in Christ's name.