A New Thing Springing Forth

Last night was particularly awesome. It's just good to be with you and hang out and eat lots of food and cookies.

So many cookies. In fact, there are some cookies left back there that are leftover from last night. So if you were not able to come and try them out, they were exceptional.

But that's the kind of thing that we do at Christmastime, isn't it? We have certain family traditions, and one of our family traditions is that we hang out with family.

And you guys have become family to us, and so being with you is just a great thing.

Another thing that we do around Christmastime in our family, and I think all Christians do this, is we tell the story of Jesus.

And over the next, this week and the next week, we are going to tell the story of Jesus coming, the

God -man, God's gift to humanity coming and dwelling among us.

And so I'm excited for the next two weeks. I'm excited as we're singing these Christmas songs, and they're just fun because we haven't sung them in a whole year.

So doing that again is amazing. Last time I preached,

I preached in the book of Isaiah, chapter 43. As I was preaching through that whole chapter, there was a verse that I kind of skimmed over just a bit, and I didn't expound on it, but today

I'm going to use it to point to where we're gonna be in Isaiah this morning. And that verse is verse 19 in chapter 43, and it says this,

Isaiah said this, perhaps you heard this and you went, huh, what's that about? He said this, he said, behold,

I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Now the question that comes is what is this new thing that God is doing?

In the previous verse, he said, forget those things in the former times. He reminded them of their history and coming out of Egypt, what a great deliverance that was.

And he was speaking to a people who were in bondage in Babylon, and he's saying, you're gonna be set free, but I'm even doing a new thing, something that's even better, something that's even more impressive.

Can you see it? Can you see what I'm doing? Now what we're gonna look at this morning is the prophecy that you may see in a lot of Christmas cards, you hear it a lot during this time of year, the one in Isaiah 9 that talks about a wonderful counselor, a mighty

God, an everlasting father, a prince of peace.

And you hear about it, but for a long time I didn't know the backstory to that prophecy.

And so today I wanna kind of unfold that backstory for you because I think it's really amazing.

And this prophecy that is given about this child that's going to be born is an interesting thing because as a prophecy, it has a near fulfillment, and then it points to something that's very far off.

It has a fulfillment that in the near, the thing that they'll experience, it'll be great, and it will demonstrate to them that God is among them, that God is with them.

But there is a future fulfillment that is gonna be greater than they can even imagine.

And that's where we find ourselves this morning, thinking about the new thing that God is doing, and then actually seeing the prophecy that they should have noticed, they should have seen it.

And can you imagine the excitement of God Himself as He's proclaiming this to His people?

It's like, hey, you know about this thing, but this thing that's coming is even better.

It's even greater. It's kind of like when I was trying to describe to Josh in Seattle what the bulgurito was like.

It is a Korean burrito. And I kept telling him, it is really good.

It has so much meat in it. You are gonna love this. And he had no idea.

He had no concept. He couldn't even imagine it. And then when he took it and started to eat it, he was like, this, this is really good.

And he hasn't stopped talking about it since, right? Because he then experienced what the bulgurito was.

And I can't even imagine that that's what God was doing as He's speaking through the prophet Isaiah. He's like, guys, you don't even understand.

You can't even fathom what's coming. It is that good. It is the bulgurito of prophecy.

And here it is. So the backstory behind this great prophecy of this child that's gonna be born.

In Isaiah, it's, for unto you a child is born, unto you a son is given, right? And the government's gonna be upon His shoulders.

And so we know that and we hear that, but what's behind that? Well, what we have to do is we have to kind of orient ourselves in history.

Isaiah 43 was when God was about to call His people out of captivity in Babylon, but we're gonna go back in time, before that.

And this story happens during the reign of King Ahaz. Now, did we get the coloring sheets?

You guys have the coloring sheets? Okay. So the coloring sheet serves a dual purpose today. It has a map on it, okay?

So if your kids are looking at that, you can look over their shoulders and see the map so that you can understand what is happening.

So this is a very political time within the ancient Near East. It is called the

Syrio -Ephraimite War, because Syria and Israel, it's often called

Ephraim, joined together in this battle and they want to take out

Ahaz. So what is happening is that you have

Syria, and then if you look on the map, you have this bigger region called Assyria. Now Us, this is confusing,

I'll just...it is confusing. Syria and Assyria. That's why we have the map. I want you to see

Assyria because they're the powerhouse of the time. And they are actually ruling over Syria and Israel.

They've come in with their armies and these countries said, hey, we don't wanna fight. We don't wanna fight. We'll give...we'll be your vassal servants.

We'll give you... See, Samuel's already getting a coloring sheet there so you can see the map. And if you need one, you can get one too.

But they owe tribute to Assyria. But it's a curious time because Sennacherib, who's been the king of Assyria for a long, long time, has just stepped down off the throne.

And now Tiglash -Pileser III, what a great name. Angel, you should think about it,

Tiglash -Pileser III, okay? He has just come to power. So, King Rezin and King Pekka, these two kings of Syria and Israel, they get together and they say, hey,

I don't like paying this tribute. Do you? No, I don't either. This seems like the perfect time for us to rebel and get out from under Assyria.

How are we gonna do that? And so they come up with a plan. They go, hey, let's invade Judah and kick

King Ahaz out. And we'll put our little puppet leader in there, and I think he's the son of Tebiel is what it says actually in Isaiah 7.

We'll put him in place. And then we'll have this coalition of three nations that we can stand up against Assyria.

More people, more success. Well, King Ahaz hears about their plot.

At the beginning of chapter 7, verse 1, it says that Ahaz heard and all the people of Judah were terrified.

It says their hearts were shaking like trees in a windstorm. And Isaiah is sent to Ahaz with a message of deliverance.

So he shows up and he tells Ahaz, he says, ask God for a sign, Ahaz. Go to God, ask

Him for a sign. And for whatever reason, Ahaz goes, yeah, I don't need a sign.

And Isaiah says, oh, you're getting a sign. You are getting a sign whether you want it or not. And here's the sign.

He says, the virgin or young woman in the Hebrew, it can go both ways, will give birth and He will be

Emmanuel. He will be God with you. Im is with, Manu is us, and El at the end is

God, with us, God. That's His name. So that you guys will know that these evil nations that are troubling you,

Israel and Syria, they're gonna be no more. And it happens. It actually happens.

The prophecy happens. And Isaiah's wife, it is believed, who is a young woman, has a baby.

And Isaiah has told him, given him a name, or given a name to him to call the child.

And it's not Emmanuel, it's Mehar Shalal Hashbaz, Mehar Shalal Hashbaz.

Mehar means hurry, Shalal means spoil, Hash means hurry, or again, or speed, and Baz means the plunder.

So his name basically means something is gonna happen quickly and it's gonna produce spoil, it's gonna produce plunder.

Well, what produces spoil and plunder? War. War is gonna happen quickly and it's gonna produce the spoil and plunder.

The only question is, is who gets the spoil and the plunder? So Isaiah urges

Ahaz. He says, stand firm in the faith, believe in Yahweh, and do not respond to fear.

That's what Ahaz is commanded to do. But what does he do? Let's look at 2

Kings chapter 16, verses 7 through 9. It says, then

Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglash -Pileser of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son.

Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram, which is the king of Syria, and from the hand of the king of Israel who are attacking me.

And Ahaz took all the gold and silver found in the house of the Lord and the treasures in the king's house, and he sent them as a present to the king of Assyria.

So he took God's stuff, right? So God comes and says, I'm gonna deliver you, and here

I'm gonna give you a sign that that's gonna happen, and that sign is named, it has a name that tells you the purpose.

My deliverance is gonna be quick and it's gonna produce spoil and plunder. Just trust in me.

So what does Ahaz do? We could do it that way, or I could just go to Assyria myself, take some of God's stuff and give it away.

And then it says, the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus. He took it, carrying its people captive to cure, and then he killed

Rezan, the king of Damascus, the king of Syria. So Ahaz, instead of doing what

God told him to do, which was the easiest thing ever, right? All you have to do is wait, trust in me, don't be afraid, and see my deliverance, okay?

And God is gonna use Assyria to do this, but he does it his own way.

He tries to...he says, this is much better, I don't have to wait for anybody, I can just do this.

I got this, God, don't worry about it. And this right here in the story really brings conviction to me, because I know that I can do that.

I know that I can do that when God tells me something to do. I can say, you know what? And it's clear, this is the way that you should live, this is the way that you should go.

And I go, you know, okay, but I'm just gonna do it this way.

And it could be that I'm impatient. It could be that my heart is stubborn. Could be that your heart is stubborn when

God comes to you and says, hey, this is what I want you to do. Maybe you find that in the

Scriptures, maybe you hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you through a sermon or through a brother, and you go, you realize, oh, wait, that's what

I should do. That's what God is asking me to do. You feel that conviction, and then you go, ah,

I think I'll just do it this way. I think, yeah, I hear you, God, but I'm gonna continue to do this my way.

It's interesting that in Isaiah 53, God says through Isaiah, He says, they're like sheep that have gone astray.

They've gone their own way, and God has laid upon Christ the iniquity of them all. So He realized that that is our condition.

Anyway, the name of this child, Maharshalah Hasbash, instead of it being the spoil is gonna come to Israel, I mean, to Judah, it's now gonna go all to Assyria.

He says in chapter 8, because the people have refused the waters of Shiloh, which is not

Shiloh there, but this is another term that means the pool, refers to the pool of Siloam, which they would have recognized.

They've refused the waters of Shiloh, these waters that were built by Hezekiah and made a tunnel into Jerusalem to provide water for them in the midst of a siege.

They could have depended upon that. God is saying, I'm like that. You can depend on me.

But He says, instead, He said, instead of depending on these waters that flow gently, and they rejoice over Rezan and the son of Ramaliah, therefore, behold, the

Lord is bringing up against them the waters of a river, mighty and many, the king of Assyria in all his glory, like a river at flood stage, and it will rise over all its channels, and it will go over all its banks, and it will sweep into Judah and overflow it and pass on, reaching even to the neck, almost destroying someone.

You can think about the waters rising almost to when you are destroyed, when you're killed, and its outspread swings will fill the breadth of your land.

So there will be no escape in Israel. And then He calls them, O Emmanuel, O Emmanuel, the ones, the people who are to be

God with us. You wouldn't trust in Yahweh. You chose to go your own way.

You exchanged one oppressor for another, and the result is going to be war and conflict for generations to come.

So that's the backstory. That's the backstory before we get into Isaiah 9. And the backstory tells us that God has a plan for deliverance for His people.

He always does, especially when they are in fear, when they're in distress, and He gives them a sign.

He gives them a sign which is a child, and He names that child, a name that points to that deliverance that He's going to bring.

And even though they refuse to trust in Him, God's plan points to a new thing, a new thing that is going to spring forth.

It's a deliverance, like I said, that is even greater. So He tells Isaiah, don't fear, don't fear

Isaiah, but watch and wait for another child with a greater name, a greater sign to bring hope to the world.

So Isaiah 9, verse 1, but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

In the former time, He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun, then the land of Naphtali.

But in the latter time, He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

Now, He's saying here, He's pointing to a specific location, okay?

A specific location, and what is this location? And He's also saying, look to that location because there's going to be a coming change in that location.

The people in this region were, of course, longing for change because of Isaiah's disobedience, the king of Assyria went straight through these regions in northern

Israel. And it became this place where armies were flooding in to attack

Israel and Judah. And so armies coming and stealing their property, killing their family members, taking their food, this would have been a terrible place to live because you are in the highway of all of these armies.

This land is going to see a change. This land, this location is going to be significant, and it has significance in the

New Testament and the Old Testament. First, we'll look in the New Testament, okay? And we'll look in Matthew 4, verses 12 through 16, and notice this location.

Now, when He heard that John had been arrested, He, Jesus, withdrew into Galilee. And leaving

Nazareth, He went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the way of the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that it was spoken by the prophet

Isaiah, what was spoken might be fulfilled. Israel, the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the

Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light. And for those dwelling in that region and the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

Most of Jesus' ministry and His miracles are done in this region.

If Jesus was a light, this is where He shone the brightest outside of Calvary, the way of the sea, the land beyond the

Jordan. That's referring to the Decapolis, and many of you know the story of Jesus, where Jesus encounters a man who's full of demons, and He casts them into a herd of pigs.

That's the region that Isaiah is pointing to. Verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

So the people here have walked in darkness, now they're going to see a great light.

And we know the story of Christmas, right? We know that an unusually bright star shines over the countryside of Judah.

And for the people who are listening to Isaiah in this region, that would be something that they would long to see, they would be waiting for.

But this darkness, as great as the light is that is going to shine upon them, the darkness that they're in is even greater.

And how great is that darkness? The word that is used in Matthew is psalmavet, which means the shadow of death.

And I really like that usage in Matthew's gospel, because it reminds me back to Psalm 23, right?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And that's the same wording that Matthew is using.

It describes a hopeless situation. It describes a situation where you're not having any hope, not any possibility of getting out of the situation.

And I think the movies do a good job of describing this for us, right? So I'll just kind of use some movies here to help you understand this darkness.

It's like in Star Wars, right? When the Death Star is coming out from behind that moon, and they're charging the laser, and they're waiting for the rebel base to come into view, and then they're just going to blast them, and they're going to be destroyed.

The whole planet is going to... I remember as a young boy here at the Razorback Twin over there, gripping my seat, waiting to see what was going to happen.

Oh, they've got some TIE Fighters, great. They're doomed.

They are doomed. I mean, they say as much in the movie. Or if you remember The Lord of the Rings, right?

The second movie. What was the second movie? The two towers, Helm's Deep, right?

When you first see Helm's Deep, you're like, whoa, this is a pretty impressive castle. And then you see the waves of orcs just start pouring in and pouring in.

Slowly as the movie goes on, you know, their defenses start to crumble.

The outer walls are lost, then the inner walls are lost. And then as the dawn is coming up, they're like, hey, well, we're just going to charge out.

We're just going to die gloriously. And then it's going to be over. And then the light comes, right?

So it's a good picture of what we're talking about here. The darkness is heavy with death.

And it's just not a dark situation or a dark circumstance. It is spiritual darkness.

We go back to the story of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 8. We can see the spiritual darkness.

God sent Isaiah to Judah telling them, they're not going to listen to you. They won't see.

They won't listen. Even though I'm saying, can't you see it? They won't see it. Spurgeon says, the

Lord Jesus will not hide His face from us unless we hide our face from Him.

And this is Judah's response. They don't even care. Listen to what they want Isaiah to do for them during this time.

They tell him in verse 19 of chapter 8, hey, inquire of the mediums for us. You're a prophet, right?

Hey, will you go to some mediums? Will you go to some necromancers for us who chirp and mutter?

And God says, should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

They're literally consuming lies straight out of the mouth of hell.

And the people themselves are thrusting themselves into this darkness. They are creating the situation, and God allows them to.

And so we should pity them. We should see that. We should see it as foolishness, not to listen to God.

They chose the darkness. They chose not to see, even though God was trying to show them a beautiful thing that was coming.

Isaiah 9, verses 3 and 5, you have multiplied the nation. You have not, okay, and that's in the

Masoretic and in the King James, which is the one time that I'm going to go to the King James. You have not increased their joy.

They rejoice before you as with the joy at the harvest, and they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle torment, every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

What is that talking about? It's hard because the pronouns in there range from he to you to they.

So it's hard to tell who they, this is speaking to specifically, but let me just jump into it and start to unwind some of this.

You have multiplied the nation. You have not increased its joy. They rejoice with you as with the joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

Okay, the not in here is Hebrew parallelism, okay?

I think a lot of translations have smoothed this out because whether you put it not in there or you leave the not out, it really doesn't change it that much.

But here's what I think is going on. You have multiplied the nation. And if you go back to verse one, it says, in former times, and then it talks to about latter times.

So I think you can apply that parallel to this verse here. In former times, you multiplied the nation, and Israel and Judah experienced that under King David.

I mean, they lived in a golden era where God multiplied the nation physically, but he says, you have not increased its joy, okay?

And its joy that he's talking about is joy in Yahweh, okay?

But in latter times, he's pointing to a time when there will be joy in Yahweh, and that joy will be as the joy of the harvest.

It will be as when they are glad when they divide the spoil. He's pointing to something greater, okay?

For the yoke of his burden, the staff of his shoulder, the rod of the oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

Do you remember the day of Midian, Judges 6 and 7? Do you remember?

It was a time in Israel's history when the Midianites came, and the Scriptures say that they were as numerous as the locusts.

They just came in, and they swept, and they ate all the food, okay? And so Israel is starving because they've been invaded.

And it's a story about Gideon and how Gideon comes, and he's threshing wheat inside his wine press so he can be hidden from the

Midianites, so he can get some food for his family. And it's there that the angel of the

Lord appears and calls him a mighty warrior. And he goes, what? I'm a mighty warrior? If that's true, give me a sign.

So he goes and he gets some food, right, which is scarce at this time, and he brings it back to the angel of the

Lord, and the food is consumed with fire before him. And he goes, whoa, well, maybe you're kind of serious about this.

So Gideon goes out, and he does something probably unthinkable to his character. He goes in the middle of the night in secret, and he tears down an altar to Baal, right?

And then he runs away, but somebody sees him, and so it gets out that, hey, it was Gideon who did that.

He knocked down your altar over there, and they start calling him Jerubbabel, okay? So if you ever hear me call

Hannah and Jake's son Jerubbabel, I'm not calling him Gideon, I'm calling him by his biblical nickname,

Jerubbabel. So he does that. God gives him victory. He starts to become a stench, not just to the

Midianites, but to the people of Israel who are worshiping false gods. So he's starting to bring kind of some spiritual reform there, but he still has doubt.

So he goes to the Lord and says, hey, give me a sign. I'm gonna take this fleet, I'm gonna take my bath mat, and I'm gonna put it outside, and what

I want you to do is I want you to... Kristen looked at me like... I want you to make dew go around it, but have no dew on top of it.

Can you do that? And it happens. Well, hey, well, how about this?

How about you make the dew go on it, but not around it? And God does that. So he goes, okay.

So he goes and he gathers an army from the regions of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali.

He raises 320 ,000 men. And then through a series of tests,

God says, that's too many men, really, you only need about 300. And so with 300 men,

Gideon defeats the whole Midianite army. Now, remember, they're like locusts, they're like sand on the seashore, they're just everywhere.

And Gideon destroys them through the power of God. Now, did you notice anything familiar to our story that we have already been learning about?

Did you hear a vast multitude, an enemy that's swarming all over the land and spiritual darkness that's happening there?

They were worshiping Baal, right? Did you hear the giving of a sign, not just one sign, multiple signs?

Did you hear Zebulun and Naphtali? Did you hear an emphasis on faith in God and not a dependence on man?

Did you hear a defeat of a great force through an apparently insignificant means?

Only 300 men. And we're about to hear about just a little tiny baby.

The result is total redemption by the Lord. Israel was utterly delivered from its oppressor.

God is reminding them of this time of divine deliverance. He says, remember, remember that.

Isaiah 43, see, he tells them, forget the former times. That happened in the past. I'm doing something brand new.

You're not going to believe it, Bulgarito. And he says in 6, a child, again, a child, except this child is not just a sign of deliverance or rescue.

He is the rescuer. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.

They were told to look. Here's where you're to look for that sign, and here's what you're to look for, a promised child.

And I wonder how they would have responded to this part of the prophecy. Oh, man, do we have to wait for a baby?

He's going to have to grow up. I could see them, just like Ahaz, going, how do we do this our way?

How do we get around having to wait for this? And they waited a long time.

Now, angel, you're about to have a baby, brand new baby girl.

And you're going to experience something that a lot of fathers and mothers experience.

When for the very first time, they hold that child in their arms, tiny little baby, right?

And you look at their bodies and you go, man, why were you created? What's your purpose?

You look at their little hands and say, what will you do with those hands? You look into their eyes and you say, what kind of person are you going to be?

And there's a lot of wonder there. It's a time of, you don't know the answer to that.

It could go both ways. But in this story, in this story, we don't have to wonder because we're told that this will be a son.

It will be a male child and a father, which means he's a son.

There's a father involved who's going to give that child for a purpose. And it says the government shall be upon his shoulders.

Not that the government leans on his shoulder, but the government is upon his shoulders.

Think about the statue Atlas holding the world, right? This is the picture. When I read this passage, this is the picture

I see, that Jesus has the weight of government. He rules. He is the ruler.

The child that is going to be born is going to be a ruler, the ruler. Look for him and his name shall be called.

And you should be going, what's his name? What's his name going to be? Tell us the name because the name tells us his purpose.

We don't get the name. We don't get a Maharshal al -Hashbath here, but we do get a descriptor of the name, okay?

Look for a name and his name shall be called. His name will mean this. You will refer to that name by this description, wonderful counselor,

Pele Yoetz, mighty God, El Gabor, everlasting Father, Aviad, the

Prince of Peace, Shar Shalom. Paul says that this name is a name above every name, a name that will cause every person dead, living, above, below the earth.

Every person will bow. There's a quality. There's such substance to this name that it requires a name to go with the name so that we understand all that it represents.

In fact, Charles Spurgeon wrote a series of sermons on this verse, and he did...the

series of sermons was one word, one word from every part of this descriptor.

So he started his first sermon with wonderful, had a whole sermon called wonderful. You can listen to it.

In this sermon, he describes for us how every other thing that we call wonderful fails in comparison to our

Savior, how every other thing that we would call wonderful is just subjectively wonderful.

What do I mean by subjectively wonderful? Well, some people believe that putting pineapple on your pizza is wonderful, and I would say that's crazy, okay?

So that's wonderful to you, right? But it's not objectively wonderful, otherwise everyone would agree with you.

Bacon is more objectively wonderful, right? And so Charles Spurgeon says, we call

Jesus wonderful because we don't have a better word for it. And if we did, we would use that word.

We use wonderful, even though his name outshines the word, he defines wonderful.

Only Jesus is truly wonderful. And then we could, like Spurgeon, go on to counselor, right?

And talk about how Jesus is a counselor to us, how

He brings comfort, how He brings wisdom, how He brings truth and guidance. However, this morning,

I don't wanna do...we don't have enough time to do that, okay? So what I wanna do is kind of step back and look at this description as a whole, right?

And here's a good thing to do later this afternoon, is just take a piece of paper out and write

He is, and then just start to fill in your understanding of what, who

Jesus is, who this child is, who this Savior is. See how far you get, see if you have to use a second page.

However, so let's look at the description as a whole. What kind of rescuer is

He? He is enough to deliver. He doesn't need any help to save us.

He's undefeatable. He is the mighty God. He's not just human, He's God. And which

God is He? He's the mightiest one. He's the mighty God. All authority is

His. No one tells Him what to do. He's the God of gods. No army, no ruler can oppose

Him. It means that He is wonderful when

He counsels us. Doesn't mean that He comforts us in our sin, but He leads us to the comfort of repentance.

Do you hear me? He leads us to the comfort of repentance. He brings joy like no one else will, even greater than prosperity, even greater than political success.

Are you still glowing and basking in that? It's better than that. In fact, He can satisfy us in every way so that we never find satisfaction in any of the thousands and thousands of things that our wicked hearts desire.

It means that He lives forever, that He will never stop standing for us, that there's no one greater.

He is outside of the created order. He is the Father of eternity, which means

He alone can give us eternal life. He is not cheap. He is not transient or momentary.

He satisfies us for eternity. It means He can set us free.

As a counselor, He can set us free from anxiety, from conflict, from turmoil, from war, because He's also the

Prince of Peace. We learned in 1 Samuel that that word prince means is the word negid, the one who is under someone else, who rules under the authority of another.

And we see that Jesus comes under the plan of the Father, fully submitted that He might die for us, the

Prince of our peace. He sets us free from fear because His presence, in His presence, there's nothing that can separate us from Him.

He is the one who can make fear truly vanish. This is

Piper, John Piper, before I take credit for this quote. Every person or thing that we trust in eventually fails us, except for Jesus, because only

He can bear the full weight of your hope. Verse 7, of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end.

His government, His kingdom is going to continue to grow and grow and grow.

It's unstoppable. You can't stop it. The church isn't going to end in defeat, it's

His bride. And He at the head will be victorious, and the peace that that will bring,

His kingdom will bring, will not end. On the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The child, this child, fulfills the promise that God made with David.

He said this in 2 Samuel 7, 13, He shall build a house for my name, for the name of Yahweh, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

Listen to this, I will be to Him a father, and He shall be to me a son.

And then He says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. And here's the confirmation. It almost, it's almost like it knows that Mary is going to say those words in Luke 1, 34, when she says, how can this be?

He answers that question. He said there's a zeal, there is a motivation, there is a passion, there is someone, something that is driving this.

And it is driving the Lord of armies, Yahweh Sabaoth.

Yahweh desires to do this, and He will do it, and no one will prevent Him. So, as a family, we tell the

Christmas story, right? Why do we tell the Christmas story? Three reasons. I think it helps us and it calls us to remember these three things.

One, every promise of God is a call to believe. You hear that?

That every promise of God is a call to believe. Even though this prophecy here is greater than they could have ever hoped for or even imagined, the prophecy was a promise that was given to these people, and it's given to us, for those who would wait and watch and stand firm in the faith, trusting

God, not giving in to their own solution, not going their own way. You think back to Ahaz and to the prophecy that was given there, and it's a warning to us to believe, to trust in God.

Don't find a solution on your own. Isaiah said these words to Ahaz, if you are not firm in the faith, you will not be firm at all.

Exercising faith and belief in God is kind of fundamental to Christianity. It's fundamental to this place, this church, and we call that belief faith.

The Bible says that without faith we cannot please God. Hebrews even defines faith for us and says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things that we can't see.

Remember God saying, can you see it? Can you see it? I can't wait for you to see it. And then we're given a huge list in Hebrews of people in the

Old Testament who lived their lives believing in these promises.

They chose to live in a way that reflected a faith in God and not in the things that they could see.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9 tells us where faith comes from and that faith is a gift, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

So I want you to hear this, right? Faith is not something that we conjure up within ourselves.

Faith is not something that you can just kind of, I'm just gonna believe in it, right?

It's a gift. It's a gift that is given by the grace of God.

And if that's true, if that is true, then we should ask for it.

Paul encourages the Corinthians, and I would encourage the same of you today.

Examine yourselves. See whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves.

How do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? That's the test.

Look inside. If Jesus Christ is there, He's only given through faith.

So is He there? That's what He's saying. Is He there? Unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test, and then you realize, oh no,

I need to ask for it. Second thing we need to remember, we need to remember as we tell the

Christmas story that the only name that saves is

Jesus. I think that a lot of times we go our own way, or we try and figure out things on our own is because life gets very difficult, and we are not very patient.

So we kind of feel like our faith has failed us, but faith does not fail you.

We fail to act in faith, okay? You hear the difference? And when we feel that, when we feel weak in the faith, we feel we don't have a lot of faith, that is the time not to deconstruct our faith or abandon it, but rather it's the time when faith needs to be freshly pursued.

It needs to be newly proven to be true. It's a time to double down in your faith, in your faith in Yahweh, that He's true to what

He says. That's why it's important for us to retell the story of Christmas over and over. Even though you've heard it a thousand times, you need to know the events surrounding the giving of that prophecy because it encourages you to stay faithful.

It connects the revelation of the child in the New Testament to the promise given in the

Old Testament. And this is what the people in the Old Testament were believing in. This is the faith in the coming child of promise that saved them.

In the Old Testament, people were saved by faith. It's the same today. We are saved by faith.

Only we know His name. Don't miss the beautiful connection between this story in Isaiah with Ahaz that God gave a sign and God named the child.

He gave the sign, which was a child, and He named that child. In Matthew 1 .21, the angel of the

Lord comes to Joseph and says, She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

Joseph, Mary, you don't get to name this child. I'm naming this child. And once again,

God gives a child as a sign, and He gives him a significant name, which in fact, in Hebrew, many of you know, the name

Yeshua means He saves. The third thing we're to remember as we tell the

Christmas story is to remember that darkness is defeated. Don't miss the context of darkness, right?

John uses this in John 1, that the darkness cannot overcome the light. But it doesn't mean that the darkness is not fighting tooth and nail to corrupt, to deceive, and even enslave

God's people. That's you. Spiritual darkness is constantly launching assaults against believers.

Those who believe in Jesus, it is assaulting with lies.

Remember Paul in Ephesians chapter 6, encouraging the believers to put on the full armor of God.

And in one of those verses, he says, Take up the shield of faith. That's what we've been talking about. Why? Which can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

You need to realize that the darkness in this world has a discipleship program for you.

And it already has you enrolled. It's already teaching you.

It is already indoctrinating you. And so when we talk about discipleship in our church and say, men, women, you need to be discipled.

You need somebody in your life who is intentionally helping you to grow in your faith. Who is that?

Who has their finger on the pulse of your spiritual life?

What's happening with you? Who's praying for you? Who's helping you to grow? I'm not talking about just going through a book study.

Oh, I've done that. I've been discipled. I've done three book studies. I'm talking about somebody helping you to grow into the fullness of what

Paul calls the fullness of the maturity in Christ. Right? And when I think about that,

I think about the exhortations in 1 Timothy, in Titus 1, when it talks about the qualifications for elders.

And I go, okay, well, that seems like an endpoint that I can shoot at. Are you shooting at that target?

Man, I'm talking to you. Are you shooting for that target? Are you going, I am being discipled so that I can be made full in maturity in Christ, so that I'm fully qualified that when the church needs an elder, they go, anyone, anyone?

They don't have to ask the question. They just go, he's ready. He's ready.

Darkness will disciple you, whether you want it to or not.

You have a choice about how you want to grow spiritually. First, Peter says in Acts 4 .12,

there is salvation in no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Also, Isaiah, if I could go back to Isaiah 43 again, he says, I, I am the

Lord and beside me there is no savior. This, this, these are the elements of the

Christmas story that we tell, and we need to remember them. I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from Charles Spurgeon, as he describes a glorious perspective.

This is the perspective that he wanted them to see when he says, can you see it? It's a new thing.

It's springing forth. Can you see it? Can you see it? And this is the perspective that every believer should have.

He says this, look upward and you will perceive no seat of fiery wrath to shoot devouring flame upon you.

He says, look downward and you will discover no hell for there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

He says, look back and sin is blotted out. Look around and all things work together for the good of them that love

God. Look beyond and glory shines through the veil of the future, like the sun through a morning mist.

Look outward and the stones of the field and the beast of the field are at peace with us.

Look inward and the peace of God that passes all understanding keeps our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus.

Christmas time is a great opportunity to look into the light, to look into the light of the gospel.

It's a great time to hear the voice of God as we retell the Christmas story.

Perhaps today you've heard about a rescuer who satisfies, a rescuer who could bring incredible joy to your life in the midst of darkness.

Maybe you want to believe. You really, really want to believe, but you don't know how.

And I would just encourage you to cry out to God. He is the one who gives faith. As we sing some songs, as we take communion together,

I encourage you, cry out to God. Ask Him for that gift of faith. And then if you truly believe, man, come and talk to me after the service.

Come talk to Josh. And we'd love to tell you about everything, everything that this means, how everything in your life is different.