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Pastor David Mitchell
Isaiah 9, 6, please, this morning.
You might want to put another hand in Luke chapter 1, verse 35, right in that area.
And then put your third hand in John chapter 1.
Let's look at Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6.
You've heard the story, I'm sure, if you've been around very long, about the Jehovah's Witnesses that came in.
I mean the two Mormon elders who came in my office and challenged me one day.
I think one of them was named Elder Young, which I thought was a funny name, because he was about 19 and he's Elder
Young.
And I thought, well, that's a good description.
And he was going to teach me the Bible.
And so I let him teach for a little while.
And he started talking about these funny sticks, these two sticks, something about two sticks.
And one of them was supposed to be the Bible and the other one was supposed to be the Book of Mormons.
And I really hadn't spent a great deal of time in my life studying those two sticks.
So I turned and while they were talking, I started reading the chapter that the two sticks were found in from the first of the
chapter and read down through.
And by the time he got through talking, I knew what it was about.
And it dealt with the two divisions of Israel,
of the nation Israel.
And it was very clear in the passage.
And I pointed that out to him and he began to get angry with us a little bit.
But at the end of it, I asked him, have you ever thought about Isaiah 9, 6?
And I went and turned to this verse and began to read it.
And I read it and I said, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
And I stopped right there and I said, who's this talking about?
And the young man said, well, that's Jesus.
And I said, that's right.
And I said, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And I said, who is this?
And he said, this is Jesus, the Messiah.
And I said, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor.
Who is this?
And he said, this is Jesus.
And I said, at the end of the verse, it says he shall be called the Prince of Peace.
And I said, and right here in the same verse, it says he is the mighty God, the everlasting
father.
How do you deal with that?
And he looked at his friend and the friend looked at him and he said, we've never seen this verse.
I said, well, it is in your Bible, isn't it?
And they said, yes, sir.
They said, we'll go deal with this this week and we'll get back with you.
They never got back with me on that verse.
But what an awesome verse it is for us.
And I wanna preach to you this morning on how wonderful is he.
I want us to ask that question together.
How wonderful is he?
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be
upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the
mighty God, the everlasting father, the Prince of Peace.
Let's pray.
Father, we ask that you would, by your Holy Spirit, reveal the
face of this wonderful one to us by faith today as we study this passage of scripture and we ask
it for Jesus' sake, amen.
He shall be called wonderful.
This comes from a Hebrew word, palah, and let me tell you what the word means.
It means separate or to be distinguished from others.
It also means to be great and it also means to be
difficult or hidden.
And so I wanna talk this morning about the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who is called
wonderful, this one who is separate from all others and distinct from every other,
this one who is great, the greatest, and this one who
is difficult to contemplate and hidden in some ways to the natural
understanding of man, certainly.
This word palah means things too high.
That's one way it's been translated in the English Bible.
Another place it's been translated into marvelous and wonderful and
wondrous.
So the first thing I'd like to point out this morning about the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who is called wonderful,
is that he is wonderful in the sense that he is separate and distinct and distinguished
above all others.
He is the only one who is different from all others.
Look at Luke chapter one in verse 35 with me.
And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God.
That holy one, the angel said.
Now we have to understand that when the word holy is applied to the Lord, it certainly
does mean perfection.
But more often than not in the Bible when we see the word holy, it means distinct or separate.
And Jesus Christ, this one who would be born of Mary and of the Holy
Ghost, was called by the angel this holy thing.
Not only did he mean this perfect one, but he meant the one who is distinct and
separate from every other thing that there is.
So he is the one who is holy, different from all others.
Secondly, he is the only begotten of the Father.
Look at John chapter one with me for a moment.
John chapter one and let's look at verse one.
Follow along with me.
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word
was God.
Now, if you are not familiar with this word that starts with a
W, capital W, look at verse 14.
And it explains who this is talking about.
And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth.
This is who the word is, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life and the life was the light of men.
And verse 12 says, but as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Perhaps that's the most wonderful verse in the Bible that describes those men and women in the world who
make the only right choice of their will that they could possibly make.
But look at verse 13, which were born not of blood nor of the
will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of the will of God.
And this shows the great external, irresistible force of agape love,
which moved those men to make the right choice.
Right there next to each other, we see God's teaching on salvation.
But look at verse 14.
And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father.
This word wonderful means distinct, separate from all others.
Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the father.
There is none other.
And it goes on and says, he is full of grace and truth.
So we see from this verse, verse 14, that Jesus is the only
begotten of the father.
Now it's interesting to look at this phrase begotten because it comes from two little Greek words, one
manos, which means single or only, and the word genei omehi, which means
to cause to be, or we get our English word generate from this word,
or gene, like you're talking about your chromosomes and your genes.
And so we get the word generate.
So when it says he is the only begotten of the father, it means that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only
one who was generated from the father.
And he is the only one who is full of grace and truth.
But not only that, he's separate and distinct from all others because the fact that he is the only
one who proceeded forth and came from God.
That's John chapter eight, verse 42.
Jesus told those old Pharisees, those religious ones, he said, I'm the
only one who proceeded forth and came out from God.
He said, if you've seen the father, if you've seen me, you've seen the father.
He said, I and the father are one.
He said, you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your
sins.
And they picked up the stones and attempted to destroy him, but they couldn't do it
because he had to go to the cross.
So he's distinct and separate from all others.
Another reason is because he's the only one who was set up from everlasting.
Turn to Proverbs chapter eight with me for a moment.
This is a fascinating passage, and I want you to look at verse 23.
But this is a personification of wisdom.
And the Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ is our wisdom.
And Jesus is, in fact, the personification of wisdom.
And it says of the Lord Jesus Christ in Proverbs chapter eight, verse 23, I was
set up from everlasting.
Isn't that an interesting phrase?
Because normally when we think of everlasting, we look going forward in time and just saying it lasts forever.
But this uses the past tense from, having come from a place called everlasting.
So it's everlasting going the other direction.
And he says, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the world
was.
Jesus Christ is wonderful because he is distinct and separate and different
from every other.
And one of the main reasons is because the Bible says he was set up from everlasting.
This comes from a Hebrew word, nosak, which means to pour out, or it can
mean to cast as metal being molded in a cast.
And so Jesus Christ was poured out or cast from before
the vanishing point.
It's interesting to look up this word everlasting, from everlasting, set up from everlasting.
It's olam in the Hebrew and it means the vanishing point.
And so if you consider the vanishing point to be the point where you go back in time as
far as you can go to the place where physical things came into being,
and you go just a step past that and they vanish, Jesus was set up before that time.
Jesus was poured out from the Father or cast as metal being cast
into a cast and made into something solid and physical at that point.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ was set up from everlasting.
He was set up before the earth was, and he was always with the Father
and proceeded out and came forth from God.
He was set up from everlasting, from before the vanishing point, as the Bible literally
says it.
Another reason he's distinct and wonderful is because look at verse 25 in Proverbs 28,
chapter eight, verse 25.
David, could I get you to turn this down just a little?
Just barely move it just a little bit.
It's ringing to me.
Can you hear it?
Okay, that's good.
Look at verse 25.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I
brought forth.
Now in verse 23, it uses the phrase that I was set up, Jesus said.
This one says, I was brought forth.
Now this phrase in the Hebrew language for brought forth, you can remember it because it just sounds like cool,
all right?
Teenagers will like that.
And they can say Jesus is cool and they'll learn what that means right here.
It means to twist or whirl in a circular or spiral
manner.
Now I believe this is a reference to the fact that we could read verse 25 this way.
Before the mountains were settled, Jesus came spiraling out of the Father.
I believe this is a reference to the place where Jesus being with the Father in eternity past
and we speak of the counsel of God where we go
back as far as the human mind can even contemplate.
Maybe it goes back even farther than that because we have a hard time contemplating this determinant counsel.
But when we go back to that place and we see the determinant counsel, Jesus is
there.
In fact, he came spiraling forth out from the Father.
He was always in the Father and now he comes out as a distinct person of the Godhead at
this point, sometime perhaps before the determinant counsel but we know that he was there
as the Son of God at that time.
He is different than any other.
There is no other in all of existence that it can be
spoken of in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He is wonderful because he's the only one that that can be said about.
Now he's also wonderful because in Proverbs 8 .30, it says, then was I
by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight
rejoicing always before him.
And remember the then in this verse is going back before anything physical was, before the
angels, before the universe was created.
And he says, I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him.
The wonder of Jesus, one of the wonders is this, that before anything existed
but God, Jesus Christ was daily God's delight.
Now this word delight in the Hebrew language means to look upon as a
mother would look upon a newborn babe.
I mean, if you can picture that countenance, I can still see it as I see Charlotte look
at Matthew from time to time and Ben, the other three, she doesn't look at that
way anymore, but I can still see that look.
And that's the look this is referring to in the Hebrew language.
Jesus was daily the delight of the father and this is before anything was
created.
He was daily looked upon by the father with that same look because he
was the son, the only begotten son, full of grace and
truth.
But not only does it say I was daily his delight, it then says rejoicing always
before him.
And this looks at it from Jesus's point of view because this phrase before him in the Hebrew
simply means the face.
That's what the word means, the face.
And what it means is that Jesus Christ is the only one
who could view at the face of God and live.
He is in the face, he is before him, he stands before the face
of the father and he is wonderful because he is the only one who can do that.
I wouldn't think a cherubim would even dare look square on at God's face, would you?
But Jesus does.
Isn't that awesome?
He is both God's delight but he is also standing before the face of God on your
behalf at this very moment.
The father looked upon him with delight and the son looked back into the face of the father
with love.
John 117 says, for the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the father, remember he proceeded forth and
came out from God, he hath declared him.
That's why his name is the word because he is the only one who has ever looked in the face of the father
and who can come to man and describe and declare the
father unto us.
John 6, 44 says, no man can come to me except the father which hath sent me
draw him and I will raise him up at the last days.
And this is taken from the Old Testament.
Verse 46 says, it is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God.
Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh to me,
Jesus said.
Not that any man hath seen the father.
Now look at this.
Not that any man hath seen the father, save he which is of God,
he hath seen the father.
Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
The Lord Jesus Christ is wonderful because he was before the father, before anything
was made.
He was daily the delight of the father but maybe more important than that to us is that
he stood and gazed into the face of the father and he came down to this earth and that's what
Christmas is supposed to be all about and was born in that manger and he then was able to
say, if you have seen me, you have seen the father.
If you listen to me, then I declare unto you the father.
If you look at me, you can see that which you could never have seen because only I have
stood before the face of God.
And I bring that to you and declare that to you and therefore I am the word.
And this is one reason Jesus is so wonderful.
He is wonderful to us because he is separate and distinguished from all others.
He was that holy one who was brought about by the
Holy Spirit.
He was the only begotten one of the father, the only one who proceeded forth and came out from God.
He was the one who was full of grace and truth and that's why Isaiah 9, six calls him
counselor.
He's the only one who is truth.
And he proceeded forth from God.
He was set up from everlasting.
He was brought forth before ever the world was and he is constantly and was
constantly before the face of God.
He is different than all others.
John chapter 10, four says, and when he put it forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow
him for they know his voice.
Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of
the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them.
That's why some of us believe in the elect.
Only the sheep hear him and he opens the door and these sheep come in.
Buddha, Confucius, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, the Watchtower,
the Dalai Lama and Mr. Farrakhan.
He is so far beyond and higher than those men who will all die or have died and rotted in
the grave that he should not even be mentioned in the same sentence.
He is wonderful because he is separate and distinct from all others.
He said this in verse 10, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to
kill and to destroy.
Any other person who claimed to be a prophet, those who came before him, those
who came shortly after him like Muhammad, Jesus Christ himself says that they came but
for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
He said I am come that they might have life and they might have it abundantly.
I am the good shepherd.
He didn't say I am a good shepherd.
He said I'm the good shepherd.
That means there's only one.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Show me another who did that.
Buddha didn't give his fat life for any sheep.
He was a hedonist.
Muhammad didn't give his life for any sheep.
Joseph Smith certainly didn't give his life for those 40 ,000 wives that he had.
He created a religion so he could have them.
They all came just to steal people's souls and to kill people and to slaughter them.
And they are work of Satan's hands.
But the Lord Jesus Christ is the only true one.
He is separate from all others.
For unto us a son is born.
For unto us a son is given.
And his name shall be called wonderful.
Well let's go back to our definition for wonderful again.
Paul Law, not only does it mean to be separate and distinct, it also means to
be great.
So let's talk about this for a moment.
Turn to Revelation chapter one verse eight with me.
Why is he so wonderful?
Because he is great.
Revelation one eight, you better follow along in
this passage so that you'll catch this because when we first start reading, we think we're talking about the father.
And perhaps we are.
But as we read a little further, we see that we're talking about the son and we're calling him the same
name.
I am alpha and omega.
The beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and
which is to come, the Almighty.
And I want you to underline the phrase Almighty because we're gonna talk about that in a minute.
I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom
and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of
I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying,
I am alpha and omega, the first and the last.
Now he's about to turn and see where this voice is coming from.
Look at verse 12.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.
Whoever this one was who was calling himself the alpha and the omega and the first and the last was in the
midst of the churches.
Isn't that beautiful?
That's what the candlesticks typify or picture, the churches.
He was in the midst of the church and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the
son of man.
Now, who are we talking about?
Clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle.
And I want you to notice in verse 14 that you'll never see Jesus as a child in a manger again
because the next time you see him, you will see him in this form.
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow and his eyes were as a
flame of fire.
And those are the eyes we will each look into and be judged for the works that we did in this body, whether they be
good or evil as a Christian.
Those are the eyes we'll look into.
I don't believe he'll have to say a word.
I believe all that'll happen is we'll look into those eyes and he'll look straight into ours and read everything in our memory
banks.
And his feet like into fine brass, pictures the power and omnipotence of God, as
if they were burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters.
Do you remember the expressions in the Old Testament when God would speak?
Many times it said it was like the power of the waves coming in from the ocean, just
an awesome sound of power of many waters.
And this is the very voice that was coming from the Lord Jesus.
And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a two -edged sword.
That's why he's the word of God.
And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
That's who you'll see when we see the Lord Jesus.
And look what the response of a saved man who was at that time writing
scriptures was.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first
and the last.
And he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen.
And have the keys of hell and of death.
Why did Jesus mention hell if there's not one?
Why would he put that in there if there's not a place like that?
He does put it in there.
But who is this one?
Well, remember, I told you the first of that phrase, passage in verse eight, it says, alpha and omega, the
beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty.
The word wonderful, one of the Hebrew meanings for it is the word great.
Let me tell you what Almighty means when you look at it in the Greek language.
It comes from two small Greek words.
The first one is pos, which means whole or all.
And the second one is the word great, and the third one is kratos, which means might, power or strength.
It's translated that way, but the literal word means great.
So he is the all great one.
That's what the word Almighty means.
That's who our Lord Jesus Christ is, the all great, the whole great one.
The wholeness of greatness is in him.
The definition of what it is to be great is in this wonderful one, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only holy great one, the Almighty.
His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.
Isn't it interesting that it calls him the mighty God?
The word mighty means the great one.
Well, he is wonderful in that he is separate and distinct from all
others.
He is also wonderful because he is the great and mighty God.
But there's a third reason that's found in this Hebrew definition for the word wonderful.
And remember, it also means to be difficult or hidden.
And it's been translated into things too high for our understanding.
And so the third reason the Lord Jesus is so wonderful is because he is hidden.
He is too high, too wondrous for us to contemplate all that there is
of him.
He is the everlasting father and the prince of peace at the same time.
Now, that's one that the world can't figure out.
He is the everlasting father.
Those elders from the Mormon church looked at that verse
and their mouths just dropped open when I read it to them because they could not believe that of the same
person, it was being said that he was both the everlasting father and the
prince of peace.
For unto us a child is born, his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God,
the everlasting father, the prince of peace, all in one man.
Theologians have struggled with this throughout the centuries because they call him
the God man.
Let me read to you just a little bit about what's been written along this topic.
Jesus, the man, and yet Jesus, the everlasting father.
He is a wonder, a once hidden truth too high for some, a mystery
to the Old Testament saints that has been revealed to us, the God man.
Well, Lewis Barry Schaeffer said this about the Lord Jesus.
He is the incomparable theanthropic, the means God,
anthropic meaning man.
He is the incomparable theanthropic person, the God man, the mediator,
and the days man.
There need be no other for every demand, whether it be for divine satisfaction or for
human necessity is perfectly answered in Christ.
Though his deity is eternal, the humanity was gained in time.
It is also revealed that though the assumption of his humanity was first a
condescension and afterwards a humiliation, through his death, resurrection, and
ascension, he acquired a surpassing glory, which is the state he is in now.
There was a joy which was set before him in Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, and because of the obedience
manifested in the cross, God, quote, hath highly exalted him in Philippians chapter two, in
verse nine.
His condescension and humiliation were not relieved by a dismissal of his
humanity, but by its glorification.
A glorified man, Schaeffer says, a glorified man whose
humanity has not been renounced is in heaven right now.
Therefore, it is to be recognized that the theanthropic person is very God and very man,
and that his humanity, perfect and complete, is as enduring as his deity.
That's the part that people have a hard time understanding.
Fully God, and yet fully man.
He is wonderful because he was before the face of God, before
anything was made.
He is wonderful because he proceeded forth and came out from God, and Pharisees couldn't understand it, but they knew it had
something about the fact that he was claiming to be God, and they picked up those rocks.
He is wonderful, though, because he was born into this world a man,
holy man, and the life that he lived and the powerful things that he presented in
this world were done as a man fully filled by the Holy Spirit of God,
the healings that he did, he did as a man.
The words that he spoke, which we now have as the word of God, were spoken as a man
fully and unreservedly controlled and filled by the Holy Spirit of God,
the God -man.
There's an old creed that goes back to as long ago as just about 300 years after
John, the apostle, died, and it's called the Chalcedonian Creed,
and it says this, to reach a correct estimation of the person of Christ
has been the aim of the greatest scholars whose conclusions have crystallized in this creed,
which reads thusly, we then following the holy fathers, all with
one consent, now remember these men lived only 100 or so years after the apostles, a couple of
hundred years, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the
same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and
also perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man,
of a reasonable, rational soul and body, co -substantial, in other words,
co -essential with the Father according to the Godhead, and co
-substantial with us according to the manhood, in all things likened
to us without sin, begotten before all ages of the Father
according to the Godhead, and in these latter days for us and for our salvation, born
of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to His manhood.
One and the same Christ, Son, Lord only begotten to be acknowledged in two natures,
inconfusably, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of
natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature
being preserved and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted
or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son and only begotten from God the
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We can't even hardly understand their writing, but it's beautiful anyway.
But the point they were making is that Jesus Christ is God and man in one
person, fully God and fully man.
He was truly the daysman who took the hand of the Father and stood before His face
and put His hand down and declared Him to us.
Oh, He is wonderful.
He is the most wonderful of all.
How wonderful is He?
He is wonderful because He is separate and distinct from all others, the only begotten of the Father.
He is wonderful because He is the great and almighty God, the everlasting Father.
And He is wonderful because He is hidden to the world.
The world cannot understand the God -man, but He is the everlasting Father.
And the Prince of Peace in one person.
He's the daysman.
He is the intercessor for us.
He is our advocate with the Father, the wonderful Lord Jesus.
Let's stand and have prayer together.