Dec. 24, 2017 Deliverance Foretold and Accomplished by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Bible's back just a couple of chapters from where Dale read to you in Isaiah.

This morning.

We will look at Isaiah chapter 7 verses 1 through 17.

Which is where of course Matthew in what Dale read to you from the gospel of Matthew.

He looks back to this incident, which will be our text for the preaching this morning.

And he says that this was done in order to fulfill what was said by the Prophet.

Here is that passage.

Isaiah chapter 7 I'll read for verses 1 through 17

in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Uzziah king of Excuse me.

Let me start again in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham son of Uzziah king of Judah

Rezan the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Romalia the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem

to wage war against it But could not yet mount an attack against it.

When the house of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim.

The heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

And the Lord said to Isaiah go out to meet Ahaz you and Shear Your son

at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the washers field and say to him be careful.

Be quiet.

Do not fear and do not let your hearts be faint because of those two Smoldering stumps of firebrands

at the fierce anger of Rezan and Syria and the son of Romalia.

Because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Romalia has divide devised evil against you saying

let us go up against Judah and Terrify it and let us conquer it for ourselves and set up the son of

Tabeel as king in the midst of it.

Thus says the Lord it shall not stand and it shall not come to pass.

For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezan.

Within 65 years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people and the head of

Ephraim is Samaria.

And the head of Samaria is the son of Romalia.

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz ask a sign of the Lord your God.

Let it be deep as shoal or high as heaven but Ahaz said I will not ask

and I will not put the Lord to the test.

And He said here then Oh house of David.

Is it too little for you to weary man that you weary God weary my God also?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold the virgin virgin shall conceive and bear a child as you call his name Emmanuel.

He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

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

deserted.

The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house.

Such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah the king of

Assyria you know, there's a constant

and recurring problem in the affairs of men and It's simply this that men

mankind.

I mean men in the most general generic sense the most ubiquitous way I can say it.

Mankind needs deliverance.

We need to be delivered.

We we could just as easily say we need to be saved.

From something saved from any number of things from the ravages of disease that were introduced

into the world through sin.

From enemies who seek to destroy us or others for their own advancement because of their own avarice.

We need be saved from violence perpetrated by wicked men on helpless victims.

That we meet need salvation that we need to be delivered is Nothing new whether the

crisis is spiritual or of a more mundane nature whether it be global dilemma.

Or just a difficult neighbor.

It's deliverance that we need.

I just read to you from Isaiah one of the more dramatic crises that came upon

God's people Judah and This is Syria zero Israelite alliance

against the small nation of Judah.

And when I say that zero s YRO that refers to Syria and

we could say Israelite or Ephraimite Ephraim being a synonym for Israel this two

-nation alliance against the small nation of Israel what we call the southern kingdom.

Where after the civil war that occurred?

For Rehoboam Solomon's son.

They split and ten tribes went to the north that's Israel two tribes stayed in Jerusalem.

That's Judah the nation of Judah and so we come in Isaiah 7

the historical incident.

That Matthew looks back upon when he says this is what was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus

Christ.

Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a child in that

day.

Isaiah's day standing before the king soon after that that was fulfilled in that first initial

sense and Matthew looks back and said here's the ultimate here's the final the birth of Jesus Christ.

And here's the incident here is the historical record of what he is looking back upon

this invasion or this not an invasion, but this this alliance this axis if you will

between these two nations Syria and Israel.

Came about seven hundred and thirty -five years before the birth of Christ and The entire

incident though incident might be too small for such a huge problem.

It's the prehistory if you will of the birth of Jesus Christ and so I

thought it good in this Advent season to look at this text and particularly Isaiah 7 and

With this close out this short series we've done on the Advent.

And let's look and see what it was exactly that was fulfilled and ultimately fulfilled pre

-typified if you will back then to be completed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I Think the first thing we have to do and this is the way to approach any sort of dilemma.

The first thing we have to do is understand just what the problem is.

If we don't know what the problem is we'll attack it in all kinds of different ways.

That address all kinds of problems, but maybe not the problem That we want to solve.

So what is the problem or what are the problems?

Well at the outset we know that Judah this smaller Two tribe nation of the south is under threat of

invasion by this alliance of two nations.

So at the outset they're terribly outnumbered.

They would be outnumbered by either one of those nations of their own.

And of course if you look at a map and you see where Syria is coming from you look and see where Israel be coming From they're caught in a terrible

pincher site type of movement that they can do nothing about they have no Military resources to

go out and meet this and stop either nation from coming together Meeting together making a massive army

and coming against this small nation of Judah.

So to say it's a problem understates the case

Judah had been on this up -and -down cycle for centuries as they Alternated between good kings and pretty good

kings and some kings who are better than awful and some kings who are downright evil.

The current king this a has who the Prophet Isaiah came to.

He fits very well into that last category a downright evil king.

So what is the problem that needs to be addressed well on the material level?

You got these armies coming and it's known what their objective is to take out Jerusalem

to take out King Ahaz, which means put him to death and Install their own

king who would be a good ally for them later someone who cooperate with them.

That's the problem.

And the problem is that Judah this nation under military threat is

Led by a king who is downright wicked.

He doesn't lead well the Proverbs says where there is no guidance which

under him they had none.

You can read in Chronicles how he left the temple phone to disrepair and he used what was left of the temple for

Idolatry type of worship where there is no guidance of people falls but in an abundance of counselors their

safety.

Ahaz was a weak leader.

And in a way him being a weak leader was a good thing.

Now it might sound funny to your ear, but how could it be good that a king is a weak leader?

He was good.

Because if he had been a good leader He would have led them more

Effectively into his style of worship into his ways.

So thank God He was a weak leader and that the entire nation didn't follow him and those who were kind of

stepping into His type of worship weren't fully and completely immersed in it though.

Even stepping and put your toe in the water to test it out is a terrible grievous sin against God.

But had a has been a strong Effective charismatic if you will type of leader.

I Believe Judah would have plunged into that much quicker.

Second Chronicles 20 says of him he a has did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord as his father David

Had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.

He even made metal images for the bells and he made offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnom and

Burned his sons as an offering according to the Abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of

Israel and he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

And on the hills under every green tree better that this king who would have led them in these

ways.

Better that he be incompetent.

Because if he had been other than that this is where he would have led them.

So they're in bad enough shape already without taking this final plunge.

And he was as weak militarily as he was spiritually.

They have a lot of problems here in Isaiah chapter 7 is Not just two nations

coming at them.

Two nations coming at them who are far more numerous than they are strategically

better located.

He's a weak leader in any case and His spirituality is of the

worst sort militarily.

He was completely incompetent.

His great -great -great Grandfather a Isaiah had won back to Judah a land called Elif

you can see it there in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

He had won it back from Syria, but under a has his weakness.

It went right back into their hands.

So here he is.

Isaiah 7 Warned of this impending attack by his kinsmen in Israel and

their alliance with Syria.

Syria being traditionally enemies to both nations, but now allied with one of them.

And what does he do?

What does he do?

What do we do in times of crisis times of surprise.

Events swirling about us so quickly that we can't stop.

We can't gather ourselves.

We can't think through the situation line up the options.

We just have to act right now, and what do we do then?

We fall back on the old patterns.

We fall back on what is familiar to us.

And I would suggest as we'll see a has did we'll get to that in a moment.

We fall back on what we can see and touch.

The invisible God is just that he is invisible and we walk by faith.

We walk by faith not by sight.

And how difficult it is.

When crisis comes upon us.

To keep our eyes Fixed on heaven to be looking to the cross of Jesus Christ.

What did a has do?

Well, he did what?

Cs. Lewis says we all do when something unexpected comes upon us.

Our first reaction our instinctive response.

Shows what the nature really is.

Shows what's really behind us.

This is what a has did a has.

When warned of this crisis coming upon his rule.

He led by falling back on his nature.

So what happens first.

Well first it says in the scripture that his heart shook like the trees of the forest shake before the

wind.

That's a very colorful.

That's a very informative description.

Think of the sequoia tree the largest tree on the planet.

And because a few hours south of us in Sequoia National Park name for that tree.

We have them and you can look at them.

Obviously their trunk is enormous.

I don't have the statistics for you.

It's enormous and looking up and trying to see the height of it.

You can almost fall over backwards.

It can make you dizzy to see it and yet that enormous majestic tree the largest living

plant on the earth.

It sways in the wind.

It goes back and forth.

It's unable to resist this force.

But the picture here in a in isaiah.

Of their hearts fluttering like the true like the trees in the wind it's it's something

Different than that huge majestic tree.

It's a much smaller tree think of a quaking aspen.

Which doesn't just bend with the wind the way a sequoia does but it gives in entirely to the wind.

It's just shaking.

It can't do anything about it.

It can't stand there.

It's tottering.

It's bending and giving way and surrendering if you will to the wind and this is the picture we have here.

So what's his first response?

He's scared.

He's frightened.

And what happens next?

The people follow him.

You see the king being scared and frightened you're going to be too.

If for no other reason it's the king who has to call the army to arms.

And he's too scared to do so.

And second we find ahaz trying to find ways out trying to find

an escape route.

And again, here is where it becomes so important.

We walk by faith not by sight.

He's walking by sight and has no relationship to faith because he's going to walk to things he can see and

touch.

He makes an alliance for himself and with whom with assyria.

Now understand there's a difference between syria and assyria two completely different nations.

Syria as we have it today.

Well, that conflict is going on even now.

S -y -r -i -a, that's syria assyria.

It only sounds the same capital a S -s -y -r -i -a, so listen carefully because if I

switch back and forth you have to know which one i'm talking about.

Two entirely different nations syria and assyria.

Ahaz goes to assyria a rising power and known for battlefield success.

And beyond battlefield success known for the extreme cruelty with which they treated conquered

people.

They ruled with an iron hand the tortures that they Foisted upon people

even after their surrender even after they've been completely conquered.

Are almost legendary and in fact the the kings of assyria Boasted about it.

We have archaeological evidence where they listed out in gruesome detail the tortures that they put on people.

Just to show the survivors.

Not to mess with them.

And we have these steels where they actually boasted of these things.

This is assyria.

With whom the king of judah the king of god's people of all people.

Went and allied himself with.

Ahaz seeks help from them leading the only way he knew how.

Not calling people to trusting god.

But calling them to quake.

Like the trees in the wind.

And to go with him to this nation this awful pagan

idolatrous violent wicked cruel Nation add the adjectives

if it's a bad adjective, it will probably fit Assyria and that's where he goes.

I want to ask you for a moment.

Have you ever wondered?

Why?

When ahaz is told by god.

Well through the prophet isaiah, but isaiah known to be a prophet of the lord a true

prophet.

Isaiah who knew his way around the royal palace and had access to the royalty during his entire ministry.

And here he is telling him ask for a sign ask for anything you want.

Ahaz knowing that he's hearing from a prophet of the lord.

Have you ever wondered why he wouldn't ask?

He disobeyed the lord to his face.

Deliverance is promised to him and all he is told to do is choose a sign.

Any sign he wants in order to satisfy himself to give him confidence that god's word of deliverance.

From this dilemma is a true word.

And that god will as he does with all his word.

Fulfill it he will do as he promised.

Have you ever wondered?

Why he didn't accept the offer and ask for a sign?

I mean has anyone else ever been offered this by god?

God says in essence i'll do whatever you say and think of this the lord god the

creator Has in a manner of speaking and I choose my words carefully.

Put himself under the authority of this wicked king says, okay this once.

You tell me what to do.

And i'll do it now.

It's not exactly that way.

God never gives his power or his sovereignty or his glory or his holiness to another.

But in the literature as we're reading this thing as you are reading this for the first time 800 or so years ago when it

was written.

Sorry longer than that, but long time ago.

You are reading this not in a theological sense that god Doesn't put

himself under anybody's authority.

God has just said if you say it, I will do it.

And he demurs.

He won't do it.

The lord god is speaking to one of israel's worst kings an idolater who sacrificed his own children to a

foreign god.

Just told him that the alliance against him won't be successful.

And he won't do it.

Have you ever wondered why.

Well, we need to turn to second kings.

Chapter 16.

Second king 16 just one verse is going to explain this to us.

And here's the reason ahaz didn't go to.

Didn't ask for the confirming sign.

He didn't want that sign.

Here's the reason why and here's the reason why dear ones We

Don't go to god.

Here's the reason why so often we will not ask so.

And this is upon hearing of this syrian israelite threat.

So ahaz sent messengers to tiglath pileser king of assyria as i was saying before this is

where he went for his help.

Saying I am your servant and your son.

Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of syria and from the hand of the king of israel.

Who are attacking me?

And when I was back in high school back in the 70s Gangs were really a big problem.

It's not just unique to this day today.

And if one gang or a member of that gang who was a member in good standing of that gang took a dislike to

you.

We only had a couple of choices you could stand up and defend yourself against that one.

But that meant against that one and all who stood with him.

Or you can allow yourself with a gang and put yourself in that group.

So that to get to you they'd have to go through all of them.

This is what ahaz is doing.

He's really just looking for another gang a bigger gang a more powerful gang and there was nobody at that time in that area.

More powerful bigger a more protective kind of gang than assyria.

So why didn't ahaz ask for a sign.

Why don't we?

We have a dilemma before us.

When we have choices to make that we know are important choices.

Choices to make that we know the lord god in his scripture has addressed.

Why don't we?

Why didn't ahaz?

It's very clear here.

He didn't.

And I have to say I don't think we do because of the same reason.

We don't because of what?

Drove him not to is simply this he had already decided what to do.

He had already gone to assyria he had already sent this message to this pagan violent cruel king the

one boasting of the tortures That he inflicted upon people.

He'd already decided.

And gone there.

How easy it is to run to man?

Who we can see?

And not to god who we can't.

How easy it is to claim god as our god and then trust in something other than him when it really is.

When the chips are down when it's really important because we've already decided what to do.

We don't want to hear the truth proclaimed from a pulpit.

We don't want to go to a pastor and ask for counsel or ask a brother or sister because we've already decided

That i'm going to do this little cheat on my taxes.

Or abandon this relationship.

And I don't want to hear it from a brother or a sister or a pastor or anyone else.

Who will show me the right way because i've already decided that this is the way i'm going to do.

So I will not ask for a sign.

I won't tempt the lord.

It sounds so pious.

I already have in my mind what the lord has told me to do and I don't want to hear anybody object to it

a has.

Has this promise centuries before paul wrote it to us?

No, temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape.

That you may be able to endure it.

This was handed to ahaz by god himself.

Now god, of course knew all things.

About ahaz and this alliance.

He was trying to make with assyria and yet says you don't have to give into that temptation.

I have given you a way of escape.

What is the way of escape?

Well, it's twofold.

It's my word.

You just heard that that alliance will not stand.

And it's ask for a sign.

Whatever you want to confirm that word to give you confidence.

That I will do what I said.

I will do.

You can ask he was given a way of escape.

And as we so often do He says but i've already decided what i'm going to do.

I'm going to this king this tiglath pilosar.

Whom I can see I can touch.

I can watch his horses assemble.

And the spears and the swords and the shields that his men will carry.

That's where i'm going.

I Have already decided what to do.

That's why he didn't take the sign.

That's why he wouldn't ask god.

You see faith is an easy road when everything is smooth and easy.

It's the hard path that tries us.

That's when our true colors show.

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

Does that not ring through the centuries to us today?

If you're not firm in the faith, you will not be firm at all.

If you don't look to the scripture, you won't follow the scripture.

If you don't ask for counsel in many counselors, there's safety.

Of a pastor of a brother of a sister.

My goodness to bend our knee and ask the lord with our scriptures open.

You will not stand at all.

You will be joining ahaz.

If you're not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all that as a warning to all of us.

For the christian there is faith or there is failure.

There's nothing in between for gut from god's eyes without faith.

His pleasure is impossible.

Because all that is not from faith is what?

God.

This ahaz this king for whose sake the prophecy of emmanuel god with us

was given.

For his sake the hope of a virgin birth was first heard.

Not because he was good not because he repented or sought the lord or anything like that

second chronicles chapter 28.

Beginning of verse 22 says this of him in the time of his distress.

He became yet more faithless to the lord.

Stop.

In the time of our distress when we don't take that first step towards the lord and we take the easier path.

The path we can see and touch and smell and hear we go that worldly way.

It's a hard one to come off of dear ones.

It's hard to step back.

Our pride says no.

I chose this i'm staying on this.

I've got a plan.

I've got a way to accomplish these things.

It's very hard.

To come backwards.

Or better yet even just to turn around and walk back and get onto the other path.

He became yet more faithless to the lord.

This same king ahaz.

For he sacrificed to the gods of damascus that had defeated him and said because the gods of the kings of

syria helped them I will sacrifice To them that they may help me.

But they were the ruin of him and of all israel.

This is the incident.

This is the surrounding context of isaiah 7, which I read to you earlier.

He's offered a sign anything.

He would see the lord do to confirm his promised deliverance and he demurred.

Gideon asked for a sign and he received several.

You remember with that cloak.

And the dew here and the dew there and it's wet.

And it's dry.

God Did it and gave him that confidence?

He went forth.

He finally obeyed hezekiah asked for a sign and the sundial went back a few degrees.

He believed and he went forth in confidence.

When god proves himself was which is a condescension of his grace.

No one calls him down from heaven.

No one requires him to do anything.

This brings with it responsibility.

Responsibility to believe.

Responsibility to act upon what he has revealed of himself.

You know the lord Can be markedly inconvenient.

Can he not?

Our thoughts.

And the ways they lead us are not his thoughts.

And they usually don't put us in the ways that he would have for us.

The lord if we open our bibles god almighty

if we should pray.

Seek counsel.

He can really get in the way of things.

The ahab's wouldn't even ask.

With the prophet of the lord right before him.

Because he didn't want to go there.

He wanted to do what he wanted to do.

No one here is in a position where god's chastising hand against us is likely to change the course of nations.

But there are consequences when we who claim christ as savior fail to follow his word.

I'm not going to affect history.

I'm not going to be anywhere.

Except in a few records here at the church at home.

An obituary maybe.

But I do affect my wife.

I do affect my son.

I affect all of you who come to this place and call this your spiritual home.

We do affect people within a sphere.

And the more Authority the scriptures give us within that sphere the more our example

Has effect on those around us who are looking to us.

Be like king ahas.

And go to assyria for help.

But take assyria out put in a blank and filling go to any manly

worldly fleshly ways for help.

Well, it's just proving that our heart is fluttering like a tree in the wind a small little sapling kind of tree.

And we'll be followed that way.

As judah followed ahaz their hearts fluttered with the kings.

The lord through the prophet gives the sign that the king Wouldn't

ask for.

It sounds so pious.

I'm not going to test the lord.

No, i'm not going to ask the lord.

I'm not going to put him to the test because i'm too holy.

I'm too sanctified.

No I'm too proud.

I'm too arrogant.

I'm too determined to go my own way.

I have no faith whatsoever.

That's really how stark this is.

And so the lord Who of course knows all things?

And knew from eternity past that this incident would play out exactly as it did because he decreed it.

And yet even knowing all that and the theology behind what I just said is absolutely correct even knowing all

that.

Had as asked for a sign He would have gotten it.

What could he have asked for?

I didn't make up any illustrations or or crazy things.

He could have asked for it to present to you.

But what if he asked for the moon to go out of the sky for half an hour then to come back to it?

God would have done that with a snap of his fingers.

And ahaz could have seen that and said this alliance between my

brethren in israel.

And syria will not fail because I just saw the moon go away.

Perhaps he could have drained the oceans And filled them back up anything.

Well, he wouldn't.

And the lord then says here's the sign that was from eternity past ordained decreed.

A sign so much bigger than those examples.

I just gave you moons going away oceans being drained and refilled.

Whatever the case.

Here's something even greater.

Therefore the lord himself will give you a sign and here it is behold.

The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name emmanuel.

In 735 bc this child must have been the prophet isaiah's son

maharashala.

Which is a name that means something about the plunder being taken speedily.

A reminder that the end of the threat that might have caused such damage in such plundering.

The end of the threat had been prophesied and accomplished by the lord.

So when the threat goes away when those nations are no longer there.

They look back and say the lord Said this would happen.

The lord said he would do this.

The young woman who had that child.

If not ahaz himself would then look and say with that threat gone god with us.

Surely god is with us because he gave his word.

And then he accomplished his word.

And now we are safe god with us.

If the prophet says that god's ways are not our ways.

Here is one of the clearest examples.

Ahaz looking to man for help trusting in a serious horses.

So he's acting by looking for strength, how does god act?

By a child.

By a child ahaz did the expedient.

He did even the logical thing.

And god says no do not go by say but by sight but go by faith.

Trust the word I have spoken to you look to the confirming sign that I have given trust me to do what i have said.

The prophet said that the campaign against them shall not stand it shall not come to pass.

Historically.

Even in the scriptures, but historically it didn't.

It did not stand it did not come to pass.

Those two allied nations were defeated.

Syria was conquered a few years later and after that in 722 BC israel was

destroyed.

And those were both by assyria.

God by his might by his providential mastery over every event in history brought them down just as he said he

would.

And this Is the context?

That matthew borrowed to explain christ's birth.

This is it.

He says all this took place to fulfill what the lord had spoken by the prophet.

And then he quotes what the prophet had said.

Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear his son and they shall call his name emmanuel

god with us.

When god accomplishes his word to you.

It gives you that way of escape.

You can say God with us god with me.

God accomplish his word through me when we acknowledge.

Much less conquer.

Some sin that has beset us for many years.

Is that not a confirming sign?

That god is true to his word that his spirit is in you if your faith is in the lord.

Jesus christ.

And you can then say.

With these people in 735 bc who saw the end of that military threat.

God with us god with me.

All the promises of the word every time he accomplishes in you.

What he says he will.

You can make this claim god is with us.

Matthew said all this took place.

He's talking about the all the circumstances surrounding jesus conception and birth.

All this took place to fulfill what the lord has spoken.

So mary's pregnancy taking place without any physical union with her betrothed husband, but

by the holy spirit.

Joseph's unwillingness to expose her to shame and public disgrace to exercise his right of divorce, but

to do so quietly.

That took place to fulfill what the lord spoke.

The angel's intervention and joseph's obedience.

And his very name his name will be jesus for he will save his people from their sins.

The first emmanuel was a token of god's promise to save his people from the zero ephraimite threat.

To say that god used the occasion says too little.

God decreed all of it by his eternal will your word.

Oh lord says the psalmist is forever cast in the heavens.

The god's deliverance then made good his eternal word in time emmanuel god

with us is this towering Memorial to god's faithfulness and his care for his people.

The first emmanuel.

Could only hint at the true and final emmanuel.

In 735 bc god was with his people from afar.

He spoke to them through a prophet.

He sent his word, but he did it through a man's mouth.

Inspired.

Yes.

And in aaron.

Yes, and yet it was still god.

Going through the conduit of a man.

From heaven he sent forth his word and his will that the axis against judah would be done

for.

But in the final emmanuel in the jesus christ.

For whom the first emmanuel was given as a hint as a as a typical Word of what he

would be what god would do finally with us as he is with us.

In the final emmanuel he's not with us from afar speaking through the mouth of a prophet.

In that emmanuel in jesus christ our lord.

He's with us in person.

And here is the message of his deliverance the gospel of his son.

Salvation.

A has refused to ask for the Confirming sign, but he got one anyway.

Which is the sign of emmanuel the sign of god with us.

The same sign whether you will ask for it or not has been given.

Jesus is that emmanuel he is god with us not mediated by the prophet.

But as god himself as the word become flesh.

He speaks not for god.

As isaiah and the prophets did so faithfully do but he speaks as

god.

The eternal god has come to us in the flesh and blood person of his son.

Jesus.

This is the sign of emmanuel.

I say to you.

You need to be delivered.

Ask for a sign.

You may say to me.

I don't need to be delivered.

I won't ask for a sign because I don't want it or i've already been delivered in this way.

And I don't need your sign.

God has given a sign.

He has sent his son jesus christ god in the flesh.

The word the eternal word the word that was with god and always was god that word became flesh

and dwelt among us.

He's emmanuel and he is that final sign.

You'll not ask for a sign.

Ahaz didn't ask for a sign.

He refused.

You don't want to see the sign.

Ahaz didn't want to see the sign.

He went down in history as one of the worst most wicked kings of judah.

The sign's been given the lord himself.

Will give you a sign.

The birth of jesus christ by the virgin not just a young woman as in 735 bc.

Physically virgin Mary.

God with us is his her son.

His name shall be jesus.

That's greek for joshua.

It means god is salvation.

All this was fulfilled to confirm that word.

According to that word of the prophet his name too is part of that fulfillment.

God with us is god is salvation.

The sign of emmanuel is god's word that for all who believe the gospel that jesus is that

he embodies your deliverance.

And that is as certain as was judah's deliverance from their enemies.

But the deliverance that god with us the ultimate the final one for whom isaiah 7 was only a preparation.

Speaks not of deliverance from an army marching through the desert to come to your city

knock down your walls and take you captive.

Jesus comes to bring eternal life.

Not just deliverance here and now.

Not from an enemy who you can see and touch but from the enemy of your soul.

Your adversary whether you know he's there or not.

His deliverance is the final one.

God with us is a sign that god will do what he says he will do.

He will deliver you if you will repent of your sins.

You need to repent.

The king can't do it for you.

I can't do it for you your mother your father.

No one can do that.

You must repent of your sins.

And god has given you the confirming sign in the birth of his son.

Jesus.

You must put your faith in him.

Your trust in him.

You must look and say god has given me the sign the sign of emmanuel.

And that sign just as it was a sign of deliverance in 735 bc.

Is a sign of deliverance in 2017.

Today in a few days 2018.

This is what it means that god is with us.

And he's with us in christ.

Jesus our lord if you will but repent and believe the sign that he's given.

You will be saved.

There's nothing more important.

On any sunday much less the eve before what we call advent day or christmas day.

Nothing more important than this.

That you will acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in need of redemption in need of deliverance in

need of salvation.

Which is granted only to those Whose faith is in the lord.

Jesus christ who is that sign and god has given the sign.

That you may know his deliverance will come if you will but follow his word and repent and believe this gospel

that jesus emmanuel God his salvation came to bring us.

Amen.

Lord god, we again.

Thank you for Time together in your word.

We thank you father for You condescending to give us signs to

confirm your word.

And yet your word is enough.

You've given us your spirit to open our eyes to your word.

We have our bibles before us and yet father even in our life in the here and now you give signs to confirm

our faith.

And for these things we give you thanks.

I pray that we would follow you More and more closely as we go on in life so long as you should tarry and leave us here.

We thank you for all these things in christ's name.

Amen.