The Deity of the Son of David (Selected Scriptures)

Kootenai Church

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With your Bible open, or with your Bible in your lap, I would say, we're not gonna open it just yet, but with your Bible in your lap, let's bow our heads and ask the

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Lord's blessing upon our study before we open His word. Our Father, as your people, we love your word because it is truth, it is wisdom.

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In there we see the righteousness of our Savior revealed, His infinite power to save to the uttermost all who come to Him by faith.

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We thank you for His humanity, His pure humanity, sinless as it was, and His obedience to all of your law on our behalf.

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We thank you for the deity of our Savior. He was fully God and thus able to save forever all who come to Him.

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Fully able to provide infinite and unblemished righteousness to those who call upon your name.

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So it is these things that we are grateful for, it is these things that we reflect upon at this season when we are thinking about the incarnation of our

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Lord and His life on our behalf, His death for us. We pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to your word now and convince us of these truths and help us to see the glory in them and the grace and grandeur of Christ our

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Lord, who lived for us and died for us and rose again that we might have eternal life.

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We ask your blessing upon our time and that you would open our eyes and our hearts to your word in Christ's name, amen.

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One thing that consistently set Jesus in opposition to the religious leaders of His day was not that He was a political revolutionary and was calling for the overthrow of Rome, but rather He made claims to be

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God. He made claims to divinity, to deity. And these were not subtle and enigmatic claims that you kind of had to sort of parse out and find out is it sort of a double meaning that He has in mind there?

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What exactly is He alluding to? Some of them were very overt and very clear, bold declarations of His own divinity.

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In John chapter five, Jesus claimed that He and the Father do the same works. The Pharisees confronted

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Him because He was healing on the Sabbath. And He said, the Father works on the Sabbath and I work on the Sabbath. He said, what was the

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Jews response to that? John chapter five, verse 18, for this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill

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Him because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also calling God His own Father, making

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Himself equal with God. Now that's John's commentary on what Jesus said and why the religious leaders were trying to kill

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Him. He was not just claiming that He was the Son of God in some generic universal sense in which all people who have ever lived are the sons of God by virtue of us being

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His creation, but He was claiming a unique relationship with the Father so much so that He does the same works as the

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Father. The Father works on the Sabbath and I work on the Sabbath. And they searched around and looked for stones to stone

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Him. They wanted to kill Him because He was not just claiming that God was His Father, but He was making

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Himself equal with God. They understood exactly what it was that He was claiming. And what was Jesus' response to that?

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Did Jesus back down and say, no, you misunderstood me. I think if you just kind of parse out what I'm saying a little bit, you'll understand that I'm really not making that kind of a bold claim.

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He didn't do that at all. In fact, He doubled down on some of those claims and He claimed not just to be working on the

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Sabbath, but He claimed to do all the works that the Father does. And this is John 5, by the way. This is right on the heels of verse 18.

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He claimed to do all the works that the Father does. He claimed to know the secret things of the Father, to be the judge of all men, to be worthy of the same honor, reverence, worship, and obedience that men render to the

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Father. He claimed to be able to give eternal life and forgiveness of sins to any and all who put their trust in Him.

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He claimed that He is the proper object of faith and trust and confidence. And then claimed that He has the power to raise all men on the last day and consign some men to eternal life and others to eternal damnation based upon His own authority.

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And then He claimed that everything in the Old Testament was written about Him and that Moses wrote about Him and that His words were as authoritative as Moses' words.

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Now this He did in the face of them picking up stones to stone Him. He didn't simply say,

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I think you've misunderstood what I meant. He knew that they understood exactly what

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He meant. And so He said, He doubled down on it. He did the same thing in John 10. Later on,

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He claimed to be the Good Shepherd, which by the way, if He was not Yahweh in human flesh, that was blasphemy because who is our shepherd?

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Psalm 23, verse one, Yahweh is my shepherd. And onto the scene in the temple steps

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Jesus and says, I am the Good Shepherd. They go, hey me, I am the

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Good Shepherd. They understood exactly what He was claiming. And then He went on to say that He had authority over His own life,

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His own death, His own resurrection. He claimed again to be the proper object of faith, trust, confidence, and obedience.

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And then He claimed to be the one who would grant eternal life to His people. And then He capped it all off with this statement,

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I and the Father are one. And what was the response of the Jews to that? John 10, verse 31, the

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Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you stoning me?

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The Jews answered Him, for a good work, we don't stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be

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God. Did Jesus then back away from that and say, hold on, I think we have now a second time that you've misunderstood what

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I've said. No, not at all. In fact, He went on then to claim that He is in fact

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God, He is in fact the Son of God, and He is in fact God the Son. Jewish people today, by the way, respond to the same way to Jesus of Nazareth that the

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Jews in Jesus' day does. They claim that He is a liar and a fraud, and they claim to be the Messiah, and they claim to be

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God, and they hate Him for that. In some Jewish homes, you are not even allowed to say the name of Jesus Christ, unless it is a swear word.

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And by the way, if Jesus was not divine, then He was a liar. Those are really your two options.

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He either was God in human flesh, or He was the greatest deceiver who has ever lived, because He claimed to be

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God in human flesh. So the question then comes to us, this raises for us this question, should the

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Jews have expected deity in their long -awaited Messiah? Did the

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Jewish people have reason to expect that this Messiah who was promised in Genesis 3, and promised to David, and promised by the prophets, and predicted through all of the

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Old Testament, and symbolized and typified through all of the sacrifices in the feast and in the tabernacle, should the

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Jews have actually expected one who would step onto the scene and claim to be deity?

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Should they have anticipated that? To borrow the illustration that I started last week, you remember the Old Testament is like God over the course of centuries, putting on the table various puzzle pieces that we can put together and get a picture of the

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Messiah. Well, should the Jews, I don't do puzzles, because I hate puzzles, but my wife, when she does puzzles, she isolates all the similarly colored ones into one area, and then all the ones from another color in another area.

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She has the patience for it, I don't. Should there have been a collection of puzzle pieces on the table that said deity all over them, all the same color?

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You have the puzzle pieces that said he was going to be man, that he would have a lineage, that he would suffer as a man, that he would die as a man, that he would live as a man and obey the law as a man, that he would come from David's line.

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There were all of these puzzle pieces that said that the long awaited Messiah would be true humanity.

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He would be a real man. But were there a group of puzzle pieces, when you pull them off to the side, you say, this one who is coming looks a lot like Yahweh.

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We might even call him Yahweh. Were there those puzzle pieces? In other words, should the Jews have expected to see amongst those puzzle pieces, puzzle pieces that identified him as Yahweh in the flesh?

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And the answer to that question is yes. There were a lot of Old Testament puzzle pieces that indicated that this one to come was not just true humanity, but he was full deity as well.

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Last week, we looked at three of the many evidences that the Messiah would be a real man, his lineage, his sufferings, and his reign.

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And today we're going to look at the evidences that the long awaited Messiah would be God, that he would be

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Yahweh. There are heresies throughout church history that have denied the humanity of Jesus.

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There are heresies that have denied the deity of Jesus. And there are heresies that have denied in some fashion or some measure, both of those, and claimed that he is some mongrel amalgamation of divinity and humanity that is neither fully human nor fully divine, but some third entity.

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And orthodoxy, Christian teaching says that the Messiah would be fully man, that he would be fully

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God, and that these two natures in their fullness would reside in the one person,

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Jesus the Nazarene. Now turn, if you will, please, to Micah 5. We're going to look at the first of three evidences, and we're going to go through all three of these today.

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We're going to see that the origin of the Messiah demonstrated his divinity, that the names of the

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Messiah showed his divinity, and that the reign of the Messiah demonstrated his divinity.

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And we're going to work our way backwards, starting in Micah 5, and then we're going to go back to Isaiah, and then we're going to go back to Psalm chapter two.

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We're going to sort of start later in the Old Testament and work our way back to Psalm two. Micah chapter five, and we're going to be looking at verse two.

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Micah 5, verse two. I'll give you a second, because unless you're looking for it on your electronic device, it's going to take you a bit, maybe.

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Micah 5, verse two. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

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From you one will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

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Does that verse sound familiar? You probably got at least half a dozen Christmas cards by this point in the year that have that on the front or somewhere inside of it.

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It is a glorious promise. In fact, it is one that sort of shines with the brightness of a thousand suns, and even that without understanding the context.

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But once you catch the context of the book of Micah, and the verses immediately surrounding this, that verse takes on a whole new level of hope and expectation and longing.

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And I want you to jump for a moment just into the context so you can see how dark this period of time was in the nation of Israel's history.

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And once you understand the backdrop against which this promise is made, you're gonna say, wow, that's quite the hope of expectation.

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Look, if you will, please, to Micah 3. Just turn back a couple of chapters. We're gonna read a few verses. I'll show you the context.

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Micah 5, verse 2, is a prophecy that is given in the context of judgment upon the nation for their disobedience.

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Look at chapter 3, verse 1. Here's how Micah addresses the rulers. And I said, here now, heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know justice?

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In other words, rulers, leaders, civil leaders, shouldn't you know what justice is? Verse 2, you who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them, this is the skin of the people that they lead, and their flesh from their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from them and break their bones and chop them up as for the pot, as meat in a kettle, and they will cry out to the

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Lord and he will not answer them. Instead, he will hide his face from them at that time because they have practiced evil deeds.

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In other words, the leaders of the people had abused their power and oppressed the people. And this had been the case for decades, this had been going on.

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Wicked, evil rulers who ruled over the people for their own benefit and their own profit and their own power.

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And the prophets of the land were no better. Look at verse 5. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray.

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When they see something to bite with their teeth, they cry peace. But against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare a holy war.

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See what he's saying? Somebody comes and offers them something to eat, some bribe, they say, oh, peace, may peace be upon you.

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But if nobody offers them anything against that person, they turn around and declare a holy war. In other words, they were prophesying and speaking, quote unquote, from the

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Lord for their own sake, for their own benefit. Verse 6, therefore it will be night for you without vision and darkness for you without divination.

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The sun will go down on the prophets and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed.

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Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God. So the spiritual leaders were as wicked and corrupt as any of the civic leaders, liars and frauds.

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So chapter 11, or sorry, chapter 3, verse 11, look at that here, they're all lumped together.

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Her leaders pronounced judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price and her prophets divine for money.

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Yet they lean on the Lord saying, oh, it's not the Lord among us in our midst. Calamity will not come upon us.

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Therefore on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.

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Micah's promising desolation, destruction, ruin and judgment would come upon them for their rebellion.

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This is the immediate reality that the people faced. At the same time that he is announcing all of that to the nation,

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Micah throughout the book looks forward beyond their present time to give them hope of something in the future.

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Look at chapter four, verses one through three. And it will come about in the last days. In other words, not immediately, but in the last days that the mountain of the house of the

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Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It'll be raised above the hills and the peoples will stream to it.

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Many nations will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the

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God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths for from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the

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Lord from Jerusalem. And he will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations.

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And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train for war.

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So Jerusalem and Zion will eventually be the center of everything, the center of worship, the center of commerce, the center of praise, the center of learning.

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All of that will happen on Mount Zion. They will go up to Yahweh to hear Yahweh speak to them the word of the

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Lord. All of the nations will, at some point, that's gonna happen. But in the immediate, look at chapter four, verse nine.

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Now, why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you? Or as your counselor perished, the agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth, writhe and labor and give birth daughter of Zion like a woman in childbirth.

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For now you will go out of the city, dwell in the field and go to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

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And now many nations have assembled against you who say, let her be polluted and let our eyes gloat over Zion.

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They do not know the thoughts of the Lord and they do not understand his purposes where he has gathered them like sheaths to the threshing floor.

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This is the darkest point in Israel's history. All of the nations were licking their chops over coming to Jerusalem and plundering it.

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And it looked as if it would be the end of the kingdom, the end of the nation and the end of the people.

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And Micah says, you have every reason to fear. You have every reason to be terrified of the judgment that is about to fall because it is coming and it is going to be swift and it is going to be severe and it is going to all but destroy you.

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But chapter five, verse one, look at this contrast.

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So Micah addresses the leaders of his day and says now, after pronouncing judgment, now he says, muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops.

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They have laid siege against us. Here's the destruction with the rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.

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So after laying out this whole destruction plan of how they're going to be judged by other nations, Micah says now, ruler of Israel, go ahead, muster your troops.

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You trust in your army, muster them up, call them up. Daughter of troops, get all the army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, bring them all out there and see if you can withstand this judgment.

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Because the judge of Israel, that is the one who was leading in Micah's day, that judge of Israel is going to be struck on the cheek, the ultimate insult.

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That was basically a way of saying, you can muster all of your forces and it is not going to stop the judgment that is to come.

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The ruler of our city is going to be destroyed and humiliated and utterly conquered. And guess what?

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Spoiler alert, he was. Here's where chapter five, verse two. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

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From you, one will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel, his goings forth from long ago and from the days of eternity.

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Here, this ruler is contrasted with all of the wicked rulers previously.

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The Lord's promising there is coming a ruler for the nation, a ruler for this kingdom, who's going to come out of Bethlehem, but his days have actually been from long ago, from ancient days, from days without number, from all of eternity.

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Chapter five, verse four. He will arise and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord is

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God. And they will remain because at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth.

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So in the midst of that judgment, Micah promises this ruler who would come forth and he will grant

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Israel and his people security. He will be the one to care for them. He will protect them. He will teach them.

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He will be a king. He will be strong in Yahweh. And look at the details of his origins.

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Chapter five, verse two. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you one will go forth to me to be a ruler in Israel.

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These are his origins. Two of them, from Bethlehem and from long ago. He's coming out of Bethlehem, but he's going to have been from long ago.

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Those seem contradictory, don't they? They are, unless the one who was born in Bethlehem actually pre -existed not just his birth, but also

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Bethlehem itself. Notice that Micah is specific about which

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Bethlehem this one is going to be born in, Bethlehem Ephrathah. There were other towns named Bethlehem.

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For instance, there was one in Zebulun, but Micah identifies a specific Bethlehem, Bethlehem Ephrathah.

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And you wonder, and that, by the way, was the birthplace of King David. So you may wonder, well, is this then a prophecy about the coming of King David?

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No, it wasn't because David had lived hundreds of years before that. So he's not talking about David who would fulfill this.

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He's talking about one after David who would be born in the very city in which David was born,

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Bethlehem Ephrathah, not just any Bethlehem, but a specific Bethlehem. And that one would be the ruler who would rule on behalf of God.

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So he's speaking here of a son of David who would be born in the same city and of the lineage of David.

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Now, this Bethlehem was a small, insignificant, overlooked town. In fact, it wasn't even considered a city in those days.

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It was so small and insignificant. It wasn't even on the map, which is what Micah is talking about when he says it's too small to even be among the clans of Judah.

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You listed all the cities out in the city of Judah. You wouldn't put Bethlehem on there. There's more animals in that town than there are people.

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It was where you stopped to get a drink of water on your way to somebody else. Just a small, little, insignificant, backwater hick town.

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Not even on the map, not even listed amongst the names of other cities in that area.

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And I see some of you smirking, you think I'm gonna give a Clark Fork joke. I'm not. I'm not. Instead, this place was like Good Grief, Idaho, where the, because you go through Clark Fork.

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You don't really go through Bethlehem. You go through Clark Fork. Unfortunately, there's no way around it. You have to go right through it.

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Bethlehem was more like Good Grief, Idaho, where the sign that says, welcome to Good Grief, and you are now leaving

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Good Grief, it's the same sign. Both of them together, just a small, little place like that.

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More animals than people, insignificant. Nobody even thought anything about it, which is quite remarkable when you realize that King David was born in that town, hundreds of years prior.

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You'd think there would be a monument. You'd think it would be a bustling center. It was not. Even in Micah's day, it's insignificant and small.

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It's a little backwater town. Nobody paid attention to it. Which, by the way,

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Bethlehem is significant. Or sorry, I should say it this way. Christ is not significant because he was born in Bethlehem.

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Bethlehem is significant because Christ was born there. If it were not for that, even today, it would be forgotten.

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Long had been obliterated. God chooses the lowly and the foolish and the insignificant things, and he places a glory on them that you and I cannot imagine.

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And Bethlehem is just like that. A little town, not even worth remembering, not even worth naming.

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And the King of Glory was born there. And if God wanted to draw attention to the place of Christ's birth, he would have had him been born in a political center like Rome or Babylon, or a commercial center like Ephesus or Antioch, or an educational center like Alexandria or Tarsus, or even the religious center of the world, the city of Jerusalem.

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But he chooses none of those things. He chooses a place that's not even listed amongst the cities or the clans of Judah, and it is there that the

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King of Glory comes into time and space. It's there he is born. And the name

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Bethlehem means house of bread, by the way. It's a fitting place for the bread of life to be born, in the house of bread.

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When Jesus who was born in Bethlehem says, I'm the bread of life, there's a play on words there that works on so many different levels.

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He's the one who gives life for the soul. He brings sustenance to his people. But he's only able to do that because of what the last part of the verse says, that his goings forth have actually been of old, from eternity.

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From you, that is from Bethlehem, one will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

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The NIV translates goings forth there as origins, but the word does not describe a point when somebody comes into being.

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It's not saying his point of coming into being was long ago. The word origins there is a word that means, it has the idea of the sense of activities or goings out or coming out of something.

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If you say he went forth from the house, it didn't mean that he began to exist in the moment that he exited the house, but rather his activities and his doings and his coming forth from something is actually from long ago, from days of eternity or days without number.

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That word eternal or from days of eternity, that is actually a word that is used to describe

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Yahweh in other places of the Old Testament. Habakkuk 1 .12, are you not from everlasting,

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O Lord, my God, the Holy One? In Deuteronomy 33 .27, the eternal God is a dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms.

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So this one coming to Bethlehem is himself one whose activities and coming out and going out and doings have been from everlasting.

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This, by the way, is what the New Testament means when it says in John 1 .1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

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God. In the beginning, John's going back as far as you can possibly go back, not that he had a beginning, but you go back to what you think to be the beginning before time and space and anything else was created and there he was existing with God, as God.

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Second person, fully God in nature. That one, John says, became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the

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Father full of grace and truth. John 5 .58, Jesus said to the unbelieving Pharisees, "'Truly, truly,

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I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'" He took the divine name of Exodus 3 and applied it to himself.

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When God says to Moses, you shall tell the children of Israel that I am who I am has sent you. And Jesus took that title and he said, before Abraham existed,

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I am. He's always existed. John 17, verse five, Jesus prayed, "'Now,

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Father, glorify me together with yourself "'with the glory which I had with you before the world was.'"

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Those, that is a prayer of insanity if he is not fully

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God. That is insane, it's blasphemy. And if he's not fully

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God, then the Jews had every right to pick up stones and stone him. John 17, verse 24, "'Father,

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I desire that they also whom you have given me "'be with me where I am "'so that they may see my glory which you have given me "'for you loved me before the foundation of the world.'"

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He is the eternally existent one. So Philippians 2 says, he laid aside the prerogatives of his deity and emptied himself by taking upon himself the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of a servant and being made a man, being found in appearance as a man.

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He who was the image of God, but he did not regard his equality with God as something to be held onto at all costs, but instead he let go of not his equality with God, but his position and all the prerogatives of deity so that he could take upon himself human flesh and come here as the fully divine and fully human one.

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John 1, verse 3, "'All things came into being through him "'and without him, nothing was made that was made.'" Colossians 1, he is the image of the invisible

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God, the firstborn over all creation. "'By him, all things were created, "'things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, "'whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, "'all things have been created through him and for him.

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"'He is before all things, "'and in him, all things hold together.'"

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Those are statements of preexistence and complete deity, because this one who was born in Bethlehem who will rule

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Israel, his goings forth, his activities have been from innumerable days past, from eternity past.

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He is the everlasting one and the eternal one who always existed and has always existed, who never came into being.

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He is the eternal one without beginning. This is the one that was born in Bethlehem.

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"'From you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, "'too little to even be named among the clans of Judah. "'From you, one will come forth "'whose doings and goings forth "'have been from days without number.'"

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Go back as far as you want, he existed, he was there, and he willed everything else into being, into creation.

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The ruler of Israel. By the way, this is the same ruler that is described in Isaiah 9, verses six and seven.

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And to there, I want you to turn as well. The first thing that demonstrates his divinity, his deity, is his origins.

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His goings forth, his doings have been from everlasting. Second, the names of the

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Messiah show his deity, and this is Isaiah 9, verses six and seven. This is where we were here last week looking at his humanity.

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Isaiah 9, verse six. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called

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Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Those are the names.

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Those are the titles. We'll focus on those here in just a moment. Let's read verse seven as well. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. Now, we looked at this in the context of his humanity, what it means that the government will rest upon his shoulders.

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We looked at that last week, but verse six gives us titles of this one who would be born to rule

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David's kingdom, this one who would come forth in Bethlehem Ephrathah. There are titles given there. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.

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It's described the one who has come to come from David's line. Let's look at each of those titles. I want you to see how they are connected to his deity.

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First, the title, Wonderful Counselor. It's not wonderful comma counselor, but one who is the wonderful counselor.

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And the word wonderful there, it does not describe like a awe -inspiring one.

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The idea is distinguished, exceptional. He is the distinguished counselor. Why would they call the one who was to rule on David's throne a distinguished or exceptional counselor?

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It's because every king had a council of council people who advised the king in all the things that the king didn't know.

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Every king would gather around him people whom knew the things that the king didn't know. So when the king needed to make a decision, he would consult his advisors.

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He would get wisdom from his trusted friends and counsel, et cetera. But this king who will rule on David's throne, he doesn't need any counselor.

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Why? Because he is himself the one who is the distinguished counselor. He is the one who gives counsel to people who need counsel.

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He doesn't need any counsel to rule or to reign or to exercise dominion over David's throne, to uphold it with justice and righteousness and to rule over his kingdom and to operate that government.

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He doesn't need any other counselors. This is like what the Lord says in Isaiah 40 when he says, who has directed the spirit of the

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Lord or as his counselor has instructed him. Who gives God counsel? The one who is himself ruling and reigning who needs no other counsel must be what?

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God. Nobody can counsel him. He needs no instruction from anybody. He needs no counsel.

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He needs no wisdom outside of himself. He needs no knowledge given by anybody else because he knows everything and he has all wisdom and in him resides all wisdom, all truth and all knowledge.

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And that is what makes him the exceptional, the noteworthy, the distinguished counselor. He doesn't need a council of advisors because he alone can rule knowing all things, giving counsel to all people.

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Remember the passage that we read earlier in Micah, there will come a day when the nations will come up to him to hear the word of Yahweh.

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Nations will stream up to Jerusalem and stand before that throne and people from every tongue and tribe and kindred from all over the world will just stand there to hear

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Yahweh speak and he will speak counsel and he will speak wisdom and he will speak truth and knowledge and people will just long for that.

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He's able to do this because he is the wonderful counselor. Second, he is the mighty God. That's the word El Gabor.

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Gabor, El by the way, is the name that is often attached or used in God's name, El mean like Emmanuel, et cetera,

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El Elohim, El Shaddai, the names almost escaped me there for a second, but here's

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El Gabor, which is God, the mighty one. Gabor means champion or hero or strong one, one who is manly or vigorous, the mighty one.

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This is God, the almighty. The nations will stream up to Jerusalem and they will stand before this one who is on David's throne in that kingdom.

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They will hear the word of Yahweh and they will call him the mighty God. That is his title. He is the mighty

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God. We shall go up, by the way, this is why they go up to hear the word of Yahweh because it is Yahweh who is sitting on the throne in the person of Jesus Christ.

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So when he speaks, it is the word of Yahweh and they will refer to him as El Gabor, the mighty God, a clear title of divinity.

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And then he is called the everlasting father. Now that makes us wanna hit the brakes, right? Hold on a second. Everlasting father.

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I thought this was the son who is incarnated and not the father. Is Isaiah mixed up about which member of the

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Trinity takes upon himself human flesh? That he calls him the everlasting father? Because I thought we refer to him as the son of God, not as the father.

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It's true, right? What does Isaiah mean when he refers to him or describes him as the everlasting father?

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Because we make distinctions in the Godhead. And to be clear, we can say that God died on the cross for us, that he bore the penalty for our sins and that as the

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God man, he rose again from the dead, but we cannot say and we'd never say that the father died on the cross or that the spirit died on the cross.

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So it is very important when we are talking about what the members of the Trinity do that we make these careful distinctions.

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So it's odd then that in speaking of this one who would rule from David's throne as the descendant of David, the one born in Bethlehem, that he would be called the eternal father.

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This is the one that was born in Bethlehem and he's the eternal father. That create a Trinitarian problem for you? The solution is not too difficult.

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The word father there means chief or founder or progenitor. And what he is describing here is not his relationship to other members of the

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Trinity, but his relationship to time. He is the father, the progenitor of time.

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He's the everlasting one. To go back to what Micah says, he is the one whose goings forth and doings have been from long ago.

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So Isaiah is not describing his relationship to the other members of the Trinity. He is describing something that is true of this one, namely his eternal nature.

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And he's not simply saying that he existed before time, but rather that he is the one who himself created time.

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He is the father, the progenitor, the originator of time itself. And that can only be said of Yahweh.

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That is what is described there. He is the father of it. His doings and his works, his goings forth are from days without number because he is the father, the originator of time.

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He is everlasting, the eternal one. And lastly, Prince of Peace. Peace will characterize this rule.

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Notice again the promise to David, the government will rest upon his shoulders and there will be no increase, verse seven, of his government or of peace and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness.

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And this rule that Christ establishes will itself be a rule of everlasting and infinite peace.

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That is hard to conceive of in the world in which we live. At Christmas time, we hear a lot about the peace on earth.

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In fact, our special saying this, and this is not intended by the way as a slight against the special at all, okay?

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We hear a lot at Christmas time about peace and peace on earth. It is what we long for.

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It is what we are promised is going to happen someday, but there will never be peace on earth until the Prince of Peace rules in Jerusalem.

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That's why we long for that. That's why we sing for that. Peace on earth and goodwill toward men. When we speak about that, peace on earth and God's favor toward those with whom he is pleased, when we describe that, we're not asking people to just dig deep inside of their hearts and find this little nugget of peace that if they take it out like a seed and they plant it and they water it and they nurture it and expose it to nice, bright sunshine, that it'll blossom into this worldwide movement that filled with rainbows and unicorns and four -leaf clovers.

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That's not what we mean by peace. What we mean by peace is that we long, not just for the peace of Jerusalem, but for peace that will be worldwide.

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And that can only happen when the Prince of Peace rules, not in our hearts, on the earth.

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When every nation will bring its offerings and its sacrifices up to him.

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And every nation comes to hear the word of Yahweh from this one who is Yahweh in human flesh.

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When every nation gives its obedience to him and when he rules the entire world in righteousness and truth, this will happen.

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And not until that happens will there ever be peace. There will not be peace in Jerusalem. There will not be peace for Jerusalem.

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There will not be peace at any place on this planet until the King of Peace, the

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Prince of Peace, takes his throne and establishes the kingdom that is described here in Isaiah chapter nine, the kingdom of David.

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Then there will be a righteous and just and benevolent monarchy that will be characterized by peace.

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When Shiloh takes the staff, remember we looked at that last week in Genesis chapter 49, the promise to Judah. Once Shiloh takes the ruler's staff, the one to whom that belongs, when he takes it, then to him shall be the obedience of the people.

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You know why there's war? Because people disobey Jesus Christ. But when all disobedience is put down, when justice and righteousness are fully done, then we shall have peace.

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And that leads us third to the reign of the Messiah shows his deity. So the origins of the going forth in Micah chapter five, the names of the

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Messiah in Isaiah chapter nine, and now turn back to Psalm two. And our time is running away with us, so I'm gonna have to do some editing here on the fly.

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Psalm chapter two. I've kind of already made the case for his reign and his rule as deity in Isaiah chapter nine, but I want you to see how the father addresses the son, how the father addresses this one who would rule.

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Psalm chapter two, verse one. Why are the nations in an uproar and the people's devising a vain thing?

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The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

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This is the rebellion of sinful man. This is by the way, is the war that is taking place between the serpent and the seed of the woman, right?

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You see it here in Psalm chapter two, that those who belong to the devil and are doing his bidding are at war against the

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Lord and his anointed one. They are adamantly hostile against the seed of the woman that was promised in Exodus or Genesis chapter three.

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This is rebellious and sinful men. By the way, this is not describing any kind of peaceful existence prior to the coming of the

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Messiah. This hostility between the seed of the woman and the serpent is going to continue.

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It's gonna continue until it is finally put down by this rule and reign that you're about to read about here.

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Chapter two, verse four. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury saying, as for me,

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I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. Now, Peter applies this to Christ in the book of Acts chapter two.

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David here is the author of Psalm two, but here's something to remember. David is speaking concerning, we read it at the beginning of the service, 2

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Samuel chapter seven. David is speaking concerning promises that God made to one of his descendants and to David.

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Some of those promises were fulfilled in David's lifetime. Some of those promises applied to Solomon, but many of those promises applied to days that were yet a long way off, as David says in 2

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Samuel chapter seven. So here in Psalm two, David is speaking of things that Yahweh has said to him concerning his household and concerning this king, but David is also speaking on behalf of this king.

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It's almost as if he takes upon himself for the sake of the Psalm, a prophetic persona by which he speaks as this one to whom

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God has made this promise. And that's what we have in verse seven. This, what we read in verse seven is

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David reporting to us the words of the Messiah, Christ, his greater son, verse seven.

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"'I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. "'He said to me,' and now you have

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Christ quoting Yahweh, "'the father, what the father says to the divine son,' "'in verse seven, you are my son, today

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I have begotten you.'" Did you catch all that? So David is, he is quoting the

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Messiah, his greater son who would come, and the Messiah then is saying what Yahweh, the father has said to him, "'You are my son, today

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I have begotten you.'" The word begotten, by the way, doesn't have anything to do with coming into existence. It means proceeding from.

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In other words, there was a sonship that exists here that predates time itself. Verse eight, this is

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Yahweh speaking to the Messiah. "'Ask of me and I will surely give the nations "'as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth "'as your possession.

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"'You shall break them with a rod of iron, "'and you shall shatter them like earthenware. "'The kings of the earth will be shattered, "'they will be broken, they will be undone, "'ruled with a rod of iron, "'for they face judgment and destruction, "'and their only hope is to repent and to believe "'and to worship and turn.

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"'If they are to continue in rebellion, "'if they continue in rebellion, they will be destroyed.'" That is the promise of the psalm. So bow the knee before the son or face destruction.

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That's the ultimatum that is given when this king takes his throne. That sound harsh to you? Oh man, it fills my heart with love and wonder, and I just, it thrills my soul to hear that.

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Verse 10, "'Now therefore, O kings,' here's the conclusion, "'show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth, "'worship the

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Lord with reverence, "'and rejoice with trembling. "'Do homage to the son, or kiss the son, "'do obeisance, come before the son, "'that he not be angry, and you perish in the way, "'for his wrath may soon be kindled.

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"'How blessed are all who take refuge in him.'" So here is David's counsel. Come to the son, bow the knee, kiss his feet, worship and obey him, do him reverence, or he will destroy you.

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Looking forward to this king, Psalm 45 has the father saying to this king, "'Your throne,

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O God, is forever and ever. "'A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. "'You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

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"'Therefore God, your God, has anointed you "'with the oil of joy above your fellows.'" That is God the father speaking to God the son when

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God the son takes the throne. "'To him belongs the obedience "'and the worship of the peoples.'"

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So did the Old Testament promise a divine savior? It did. It promised one who would speak the word of God, rule justly for God, be as righteous as God, do all the will of God, who would be called

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God, who would counsel as God, who would reign as God, who would execute and fulfill all the promises of God, who would be worshiped and adored as God.

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That is what the Old Testament promised. Colossians 2, verse 9 says, "'For in him that is in Christ "'dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form.'"

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Everything that belongs to Yahweh dwells in Jesus Christ in bodily form.

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That, by the way, is your only hope and my only hope for salvation, is a savior like that who is perfectly suited to save us.

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We needed somebody who was fully manned to live the law in obedience to the law on our behalf and to represent us by doing everything that you were demanded to do and I was demanded to do.

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And we needed somebody who was fully God to stand before the Father and to bear the infinite penalty, the infinite wrath for my infinite sin debt and your infinite sin debt, and one who could provide us an unblemished and perfect and infinite righteousness, and to do that not just for us, but any and all who will trust in him.

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We needed one who is infinite in his ability to save and in his righteousness and in his person so he could bear an infinite wrath for an infinite debt which you and I owe.

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That is why we needed both a divine savior as well as a human savior, one who could live in my stead and then suffer infinite wrath in my place.

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He had to be both man and God and this is what Scripture promised. He is the only savior able to do all of that and he is perfectly suited to not only save us, but he is to fulfill all of the promises of the

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Old Testament, perfectly suited to fulfill all of the promises of the Old Testament. If you have lied, if you have stolen, if you have blasphemed

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God's name, if you have committed idolatry, adultery, fornication, you've lost it in your heart, you've taken

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God's name in vain, if you've done any of those, you violated any of the commandments, I have bad news for you. If you do not kiss this son, if you do not come to this one who is fully

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God and fully man, you will perish just like any wicked king of the earth will when they stand before him. But I also have good news for you.

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This one that Scripture calls you to come before, to bow before, to repent before, and to believe in and trust is himself one able to give you all of the righteousness that God demands of you when you stand before him.

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He is the one who is able to save you from all of your sin and to forgive every transgression because he bore the wrath of the

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Father in your stead, in your place. Because he was God, he was able to do that. Because he was man, he was able to do that.

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He is the only savior. There is no other name given among men by which we must be saved because there is no other savior who fulfilled the demands of the law perfectly in our place.

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There is no other savior who died in our stead. There is no other savior who rose again to provide us life.

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And there is no other savior who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. So if you will have salvation, you must have this savior.

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And if you do not have this savior and you will not take this savior, then you will neither have salvation either. The one who crushed the serpent's head at his first coming will come again to crush the nations and establish a kingdom and to rule and reign in righteousness.

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He will defeat every enemy, including death. He will raise up his people to eternal life and recreate a world and usher in a new heavens and a new earth.

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And he will bring us in there and we will live and dwell with him for all of eternity. This is

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Christ the Lord. This is the one who was born to save any and all who come to him. Let's pray.

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Our Father, we thank you for a righteousness that we needed that is provided in your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And we thank you that you knew our every need and have provided for it in a savior who is perfectly able, infinitely able to save any who come to him.

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Thank you that our hope rests in this one who is coming again to judge the living and the dead, to establish that kingdom promised to David, to renew this creation just as you have promised and to fulfill every last word, every last promise that yet remains unfulfilled.

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It is because you have fulfilled every promise to this point that we can with such confidence and expectation, trust and believe that you will keep your word even to the very end.

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Thank you for the promise that you will raise us up together with this king in glory to enjoy that blessed and eternal rule and reign.

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Thank you for your grace, for bringing us to salvation in Christ and may your grace rest upon us as we leave here this day and reflect upon these things we pray in Christ's name.