The Deliverer King

The Oppression of Sin and the Need for a Deliverer King

Today's reading is in the book of Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 1 to 7, and it can be found on page 573 in your pew Bible. Please stand when you find that. But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish.

In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time he made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shown. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.

As 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 on the day of Midian. For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government, that of peace, there will be no end.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. From this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. You may be seated.

Heavenly Father, we come to you after a wonderful lunch and we look to worship you and to again turn our attention towards your word and let us be ready to hear the message that is delivered. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Good afternoon. So we live in a society that's very concerned about the ills of slavery and oppression. You might remember a couple years back there was a lot of renewed concern about the relationship between the Civil War and slavery and there were people taking down confederate flags, there were people destroying memorials to confederate soldiers.

But even beyond that kind of zealous iconoclasm, there is frequent concern for oppression. You can buy products that assure you that no child labor was involved in the creation of that product. There are social programs to ensure that people are not deprived of any prosperity that they should have.

There are laws about minimum wages, laws against discrimination, and there's all kinds of things that have been concerns that, from my perspective, seem to be very recent ones, like all the concerns about sex trafficking.

I have several friends who have quit their jobs and given their lives to help deliver women from the oppressions of sex trafficking. Now, for all the legitimacy of those concerns about oppression, there is a greater calamity in oppression in the world.

There is a more pervasive bondage because rather than affecting a few people, it affects every single person. And it is a more severe oppression because rather than just resulting in discomfort or poverty, its end is death.

And it is far more sinister because, unlike these that are generally recognized, this oppression is frequently unnoticed, ignored, and even denied. I am speaking of the oppression of sin, which leads to death.

This oppression is real. Many people deny it, but it is real, and it affects every single person. Now, how do you deal with oppression? Well, you know, if you're thinking of some of those examples I just gave, you call on the government to help.

They enact laws. They enforce rules. And this takes various shapes in various different governments. But prior to 200 years ago, the answer was all very similar because governments were all very similar and less diverse like they are in modern times.

The answer was a king. A king delivers from oppression. A king fights the oppressor and delivers from oppression, letting people have peace and prosperity rather than oppression and all their goods taken away.

Well, thankfully, we do have deliverance from the oppression of which I spoke before. We have deliverance from the oppression of sin and death. We have a king, Jesus Christ, who delivers from these things.

Now, apart from recognizing this oppression is real and recognizing our need for that king to be delivered from that oppression, we can have no peace. We can have no prosperity. But if we recognize our need and the answer to our needs, we can have a great and lasting peace, a great and lasting prosperity.

And this passage holds the key to that because Isaiah will talk about an oppression that his people face, but that ultimately points to the oppression of sin. And Isaiah will talk about the king that will deliver from that oppression, that king being Jesus, and the prosperity that he will grant to his people, bringing them peace and allowing them to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Assyria, Egypt, and the Bondage of Sin

Let's begin looking here at verse 4. For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor you have broken is on the day of Midian. So when it says his, that's referring to Israel, speaking of him anthropomorphically.

His oppression, that's Israel's oppression. And speaking this way, it lets us know that Assyria has oppressed Israel. So Assyria is the one who, in the previous verses, has come in and begun taking the kingdom away from Israel, right?

Assyria has come and taken captives away from Zebulun and Aftali and taken them off into captivity. Now, these words—yoke, bondage, burden, staff, shoulder, rod, oppressor—these are all words that Isaiah is not choosing haphazardly.

These words, if you read the Old Testament, are very frequently associated with Egypt. I believe that Isaiah is trying to appeal to Egypt to describe this oppression that the people are under, just like the people of Israel were under the oppression of Egypt and bondage and slavery, so it is with their contemporary oppression being taken away into the land of Assyria.

Now, what's more than that is the New Testament isn't satisfied to say that Egypt is similar to Assyria, but the New Testament also tells us that Egypt is representative of the bondage that people have to sin.

You see the things said about Egypt in Stephen's speech, in the words it says about the Passover. It lets us know that that bondage in Egypt is representative of bondage to sin, and I think we have every reason to look at this passage, and as we are asking ourselves, you know, how does this apply to me today?

Sure, these things are historically true. Sure, Assyria took away captives into their land, but how does this apply to me today? I believe the New Testament gives us every right to look at this as we apply it to our own lives to say this has to do with the oppression we face, this oppression of sin and death.

And this oppression, as I've already said, is very, very real. We lose peace with God because of sin. We lose peace with our neighbors because of sin. Think about one person you have a strained relationship with, and why it is that you have a strained relationship with them.

I can almost 100 guarantee that it's because of sin, either on your part or their part, or more likely both of your parts. Now, on top of that, sin brings death. Before Adam sinned, there was no death in the world.

Not even the animals died. But because Adam sinned, we all have to go through the first death, and we experience suffering in this life. We experience sickness, and beyond that, there is a second death for all those who are found guilty at the day of judgment, guilty of sin.

And that one, that death, is not a momentary death with a temporary pain, but one that lasts eternally, forever. It does no good to ignore this oppression. You might be familiar with the story of Tom Sawyer and how he roped his friend into doing his chores for him and even had his friend pay him an apple so that he could have the privilege of doing his chores, right?

So this friend becomes an unwitting slave for Tom Sawyer. That is what we are like, except for, unlike that humorous story, there's nothing funny about this. Being an unwitting slave, being a slave to sin, having what is ours taken away, having all our labor, being invested into something that is worthless, that is a horrid oppression that no one wants for themselves.

We need deliverance from it, and the Bible speaks of this deliverance. Looking again at verse 4. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle till malt, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. So it begins talking about the enemy, the oppressor, being broken as on the day of Midian.

How many of you remember the story of Midian or what that's referring to? Maybe a few, a couple of nods. Okay, so you might remember Gideon and his 300 men and the battle they fought with Midian. Now, do you remember why they had to fight off Midian?

I didn't. I didn't remember. I had to look this up. But Midian would come in. Midian would leave the people alone for most of the time. But then at the end of the harvest season, they would come in, take all the produce, and run away.

So the people were, you know, once again, unwitting slaves. They were living like free men. But then the second harvest came around, suddenly all their work was for nothing. It was for the sake of someone else.

And so the people needed deliverance from this. Now, this is a very appropriate analogy as I looked into this for multiple reasons. One, the tribes in particular that were being afflicted by Midian, it was Zebulun and Naphtali.

It was the same tribes that were mentioned earlier where Assyria had taken them away into bondage. So not only does Isaiah allude to the deliverance they had before saying, if God delivered them before, he can deliver them again.

But on top of that, if you remember the way this battle was fought, it is very representative of how the future battle will be fought. Midian was not defeated through the hands of man. Gideon and his army did very, very little to accomplish victory in that war.

God threw the army into confusion so that they destroyed themselves. And that is very much the way that our salvation is accomplished. And not just ours, but the contemporary one that Isaiah is also speaking of from Assyria.

There will be over 100 ,000 Assyrians destroyed in just one night when the angel of the Lord comes and destroys them all. The hand of man not working in it, just God doing it all himself. But this is also a picture of our salvation being accomplished by God, not something that we accomplish.

The boot of the trampling warrior and the garments rolled in blood being burned as fuel for the fire. So if you had clothes that were bloody, you might keep them around if you were planning on getting bloody again.

However, if there is no more war, if war is just a distant memory, there's no point to these clothes anymore. They're just as good for fire kindling. Isaiah said something very similar in Isaiah 2. He said that the swords would be beaten into plowshares.

There's no point in swords anymore. They just get turned into plowshares. Here, there's no point in bloody clothes anymore. They just get turned into fire kindling. This is how complete this piece will be.

And that piece is one that will be wonderful. You know, the piece that we have coming for us when Jesus returns, it is a wonderful piece where there will be no more death. There will be no more war. There'll be no more oppression.

And what's more is we can enjoy that peace in this life too. That peace that he has provided is one we can have with God and one where if our neighbors are also under his kingdom, we can have peace with them as well.

And I'll speak more of that as we look to exactly how this piece is accomplished. Because Isaiah starts off describing it in abstract, right? This is what will happen. The enemies will be defeated. But then he goes on to describe concretely how this will be accomplished.

The Child Born, the Son Given, and the Names of the King

Verse 6. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This child that is born that saves the people is Jesus Christ. Now, child here is not a picture of weakness like you might normally think of child. Child here is a picture of strength. Because if a kingdom is failing, if a kingdom is dying, what do you need?

You need a strong king to arise. And how does that king come? Well, the current king has a son that then rises and more powerful than the previous one. You know, we were just talking about Gideon. Gideon was a judge, right?

A judge is sort of like a king in that he has authority. But the difference between a judge and a king is a judge, first of all, only had limited sovereignty over the land, you know, a limited ability to rule.

But then on top of that, a judge, once he dies, that's it. That's the end of the kingdom. It doesn't go on forever. A king—or that's the end of the judgeship, I guess. A king, when he dies, if he passes it on to a son, then the kingdom continues in strength.

So this is the hope of the people, that the kingdom not die off, but that a son be given. And this son, this king on the throne of David is Jesus Christ. Now, there's nothing in this passage that says that directly, but I believe there are several reasons to believe that.

For one, what is said here of Jesus—or sorry, what is said here of this son is way too high to apply to any other than Jesus, right? When it speaks of mighty God, who else would that apply to? On top of that, we had in Isaiah 7 a prophecy that a son would be given, Immanuel, God with us.

And I believe that this passage is alluding to that, that it is still talking about that son that's to be given. It wasn't fully fulfilled at that time. And on top of that, there is also a very real deliverance that would be coming to the people from the hand of Assyria.

And if you've not seen this before, it's pretty astounding. Assyria is defeated by none other than Jesus Christ coming and destroying the army. You know, if you've never heard that before, I hope that whets your appetite for going through Isaiah more, but it's one of my favorite passages in Isaiah.

So this here is Jesus. He is the son that is given to accomplish salvation for the people, to defeat the oppressor. The government will be upon his shoulders. He will have the seat of authority, and all other authority will be derivative of him.

You know, his kingdom is not of this world, so we don't see him reigning as a king the way you would typically see a king reign. However, he reigns over his people, and one day that reign will spread over all the earth so that it will control every land, as we might think of a great empire doing.

But in his kingdom, he is supreme. He is above all. There is no other single seat from where all other power is derived. You know, some people imagine there being one head honcho over the whole church that's not Jesus, like the Pope or, you know, other religions have executive ministers and things.

That is not how it is. There's only Jesus. Beyond that, the authority structure is very flat. Then it speaks of his name. His name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Now, some translations put this Wonderful Comma Counselor, and it's not clear in translation whether it should be Wonderful Comma Counselor or Wonderful Counselor. Maybe you are used to hearing it Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.

I mean, that's the cadence I hear in my mind because that's what I grew up with. But I believe this is rightly understood as being four names—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace—for two reasons.

One, you've got all these other pairings, these composite names, so it would make sense that the first one would also be a pair. But then, on top of that, there was—there is in the section a motif of children being given as signs.

And in Isaiah 8, if you remember, there was a child given whose name was Mehershal al-Hashbaz. Mehershal al-Hashbaz being a four-part name that talks of the destruction of God's enemies. And here you have someone who, if you count this name as Wonderful Counselor, not Wonderful Comma Counselor, then that four-part name is talking about God's protection of his people.

So you have these two children in these adjacent chapters, one talking about the destruction of God's enemies and one talking about the protection of his people. So let's look at each of these individually.

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace

First of all, Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor. One thing that is excellent about a king is that the king tells people what is right and wrong. He leads the people in which way to go when they are uncertain.

And I know in my own life there have been many times where I haven't been sure what to do but have been very thankful for some wise counselor or leader to tell me what I ought to be doing. Maybe you've been in a situation like that, too.

Maybe you don't know what you're doing at work, but the manager says, ah, this is what you're supposed to do. Or maybe you've consulted with a doctor, and the doctor says, this is definitely the best option for you.

And that gives you this great assurance that, this person knows what is right and wrong. This person will really help me. That counsel not only gives an internal peace, but if it's truly wise counsel, then it leads us in the right direction so that we can have perfect guidance and live in peace and harmony.

In addition, it refers to him as Mighty God. Now, this word for mighty is the same word that we get, it's Gabor, same word we get Gabriel out of, you know, this mighty warrior angel. This is speaking of Jesus as not only God, not only divine, but mighty, a warrior who accomplishes victory for his people.

This is another aspect of a king, is a king protects his people, and he defeats enemies. He defeats the suppressor of sin and death. And then he's called Everlasting Father. Now, a lot of people have gotten confused by, not only this portion of the name, but also all these names together.

I mean, if you think about it, well, isn't Wonderful Counselor used to describe the Spirit in the New Testament? And if Jesus is God, and he also has this name applied that applies to the Spirit, he's also called the Father.

Maybe Jesus is the Father. Maybe he is the Spirit. No, that is not the point here. First of all, there's nothing wrong with calling Jesus a Wonderful Counselor and the Holy Spirit a Counselor. They can both be counselors.

Jesus is the very…. Bible says he is the very fountain of wisdom, and him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are. What this is pointing out is that Jesus, in having this role as a king, is a protector of the people.

This is talking about a role that's not eternal prior to creation existing, but is in relationship to creation. Creation needing a protector. This is not something that is foreign to the Bible. John 14, 18 says that he will not leave us as orphans.

Hebrews 2, 13 talks about Jesus and the children that God has given him. You know, we're called Jesus's brothers, but we're also called his children because he protects us as a good father does, and he cares for us as a good father does.

So here you have Jesus giving perfect counsel, making perfect victories, offering perfect protection, and then he is called the Prince of Peace because that is the end of all these other things. Why do you give someone counsel?

So that they can have peace. Why do you defeat enemies? So that your people can have peace. Why are you a protector, a carer, a father to the people? So that they may have peace. He is a Prince of Peace.

This peace, this peace is accomplished through the cross. Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross, bore the guilt of sin so that all those who are oppressed by sin don't have to be because he suffered that oppression in our place for all those who trust in him.

So any feelings of guilt that you struggle with, while I certainly hope that, you know, your sin, you were convicted when you sinned, you can be freed from the oppressive feeling of guilt because in Jesus there is forgiveness, so that what was credited to you is now credited to him.

That sin is credited to him, and his righteousness that he has earned is credited to you. So when the father sees you, he sees you as he sees the son, as someone who has perfectly kept his law, as someone who he loves perfectly.

This peace we have is expansive, it is great, it is wonderful, and it is accomplished through the cross of Jesus Christ. And we continue on to talk about the prosperity that that peace brings. You know, the point of peace, or the hope of peace, is that there would be prosperity, right?

If the people do not want to be captive so that they are laboring for another, they want to not be captive so that they can enjoy the fruit of their own labor. And this is a frequent blessing that's talked about in the Old Testament.

You know, if the people sin, then they will be oppressed by enemies, they will not get to enjoy the fruit of their vine. But if they obey God, they will be able to enjoy the fruit of their own labor. This is a picture of God's blessing, that he grants us peace so that we might have prosperity.

The Increase of His Government, Peace, and the Zeal of the Lord of Hosts

Now, it says, that the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. In verse seven, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

So here you have Jesus sitting on the throne of David. Indeed, he is the final son of David, so that he sits on that throne and rules over that kingdom. However, I think there's something else here going on when Isaiah alludes to David, or when he speaks of David.

I think he is alluding to the victories that David would grant to the people over the oppressors. You know, here in this context, we're talking about a king arising from this throne to grant victory over these oppressors.

And speaking of David, the people are to remember how David fought the Philistines, destroyed the oppressor, and this mighty God, king, son who is coming, he will defeat the same oppressors. And he does all this by justice and righteousness, granting the people equity so that no longer is there injustice, no longer is there oppression, people not able to enjoy the fruit of their own labor.

It says of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Now, I'd like to break that down for you, and thinking about what that means for us now, what that means for us as time passes, and what that will mean for us in eternity.

Now, first of all, what that means for us now, that peace, this peace arrives when he says of that government, from this time forth and forevermore, this time forth is when the sun arrives, right? When Jesus arrived and Jesus accomplished victory over sin and death so that we no longer have to suffer the pain of guilt in the second death, that was when that was accomplished.

So the kind of peace that we could have now is a peace with God and a peace with our neighbor. You know, a lot of people, I've run into a lot of people who are very hopeless about whether or not they can resolve an issue with a brother or sister in Christ.

But if he has died so that we could have peace, so that we could be at peace with our neighbor and the problem of sin can be resolved, this is something that is not only possible, it's an expectation that he has granted us the Holy Spirit by which we might have peace with each other and with him.

Now, more than that, the increase of this government and peace continues on into the future. A lot of people have asked themselves the question, you know, should we expect things to get worse as time goes on or expect things to get better?

You know, a lot of people see stuff that the Bible says about wars and rumors of wars, and they expect things to get worse and worse and worse. But a lot of people see verses like this and think, well, I think things should be better and better as his reign increases.

I think there's room for a little bit of each understanding, but let us not neglect this one right here. The increase of his government and peace will continue in this world. Think of how far the gospel has spread since when it first arrived in Jerusalem.

And then think about how much farther it has yet to spread. While the enemy will continue to fight and quite possibly fight harder, and while I think there's no reason to doubt that true Bible-believing Christians will always be a minority in this world, the increase of that government will continue.

And this is supposed to be our hope and our expectation so that as we share this gospel with the world, we are to be anticipating his government to increase, his peace to spread. You know, if you have difficulty being vocal about your faith, sharing it with others, what is the expectation that lies behind that?

That the government will increase or that the government will not increase through me, right? His government and his peace will increase forever, and there will be no end to that. If you have the right expectation, that should grant you an incredible boldness.

Because you know what his purposes are in the world, no matter what it looks like, you must walk by faith and not by sight and trust him to increase his government as he has declared. Now, I'd also like to talk about what this means after Judgment Day, when we are with Jesus Christ and with him forever in the new heavens and new earth.

First of all, it will be peaceful. There will be no war. There will be no death. However, when it speaks of an increase of the government and peace, and there being no end to that, I think that stands in contradiction to how a lot of people understand this new glorified existence we'll have.

A lot of people imagine it being static. You know, there's no peace, or sorry, excuse me, there's peace, there's no more war, there's no death, and so things will just be static. We will worship God and everything will be perfect forever and there will be no real changes.

I don't think that that's exactly the right way of thinking about it, especially when you look at verses like this, speaking of his government increasing, his peace spreading. Now, certainly, there will be no war in heaven.

There will be no death. However, look at the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a limited region for Adam to reign over. And if you look at his mandate, his mandate was to cultivate that, subdue it, even expand the borders of Eden.

I don't think there's any reason to think that this new world that he has in store for us will have just as much in store as eternity progresses, that we will be able to enjoy more and more as God's government, through his people, spreads over all the earth.

Yes, Jesus will inherit all the earth, all the heavens. However, what that will look like as his people, as his people fulfill what Adam, what you don't see with Adam, as they enjoy the garden, as they enjoy that new heavens and earth, I believe that that will take a similar shape of increase of God's government spreading throughout the universe.

This is—what I'm trying to say is that I don't think our hope is just a static existence where we remain in some sort of, you know, Buddhist bliss or anything like that. Our hope is something far greater than that, something that will be filled with constant new joys every morning.

And I believe that's something wonderful to look forward to. Every day, there will be more and more to enjoy God for. And the Bible says that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. How do we know that his government will increase?

How do we know that he will defeat the oppressor, that his already defeat of the oppressor at Calvary has power to reign over our lives? This is how. Because of the zeal of the Lord of hosts, he cares about his own justice.

He cares about his righteousness. And because of that, he will certainly defeat the oppressor who acts unjustly. He will defeat the oppressor who harms his people, who accuses. You know, the Bible could have just stopped before that and said, you know, that he will do this.

However, by saying the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this, God is acknowledging that we are weak and unable to really embrace his word without being given reasons to understand it and things to grasp onto.

I think that this is an important part of living the Christian life, is not just taking these statements from God and holding them, but taking every reason he has given us to believe these things and grasping onto those things.

You look at the way David prays in the Psalms, asking God to act for his mercy's sake. Here you see that he will act for his zeal's sake. I think this is a right way to think about God's promises and to interact with him through prayer, is by appealing to his attributes, to his perfections, trusting in him, not just arbitrarily without reason, but knowing him for who he's revealed himself to be as someone zealous, as someone who cares about his justice and his mercy and his righteousness.

You know, if you struggle to trust God's promises, I think this is a very excellent exercise, is to look at the attributes of God. There are some very good books that have been written about the attributes of God.

Stephen Charnock's is probably the most famous. Now that's a big two-volume thing that might be too intimidating for some people. However, there's this much smaller one by Pink, by Arthur Pink, that is a very excellent read if you would prefer something smaller.

But I would recommend studying and learning the attributes of God so that you can know his character and by that character, trust his promises. You might think, well, why can't I just trust his promises as they are?

He knew when he was writing scripture that you would be too weak to do that. So he has revealed who he is and his attributes so that you would be able to grasp onto those and believe his promises wholly.

There is very real oppression in the world. Sin and death, sin and death oppress. Sin leaves us in bondage so we cannot serve a true king who will allow us to enjoy the fruit of our labors. And the death that awaits those who are found guilty on the day of judgment is not a pleasant thing to contemplate.

However, for all those who do trust in him, we have something wonderful here in this life, a peace that we can enjoy, freedom from guilt, from the oppression of sin. And what's more than that is we have a wonderful existence ahead of us, one free of war, free of death, free of suffering.

And all through Jesus Christ, all through this great king who grants us victory over the oppressor because he is a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great and wonderful gift of your son.

And we thank you that by him we have a wonderful hope in front of us and that by him we can have peace in this life and peace in the next. We thank you for granting us this wonderful counselor, mighty God, Prince of Peace, everlasting Father.

I pray that we would cherish him and that we would know you through him. And I ask that through your Holy Spirit, we might be freed more and more from this bondage of sin, though we no longer have to suffer its guilt, that we would more and more be able to resist temptation, grow in holiness, until one day we see with him and are fully free of the effects and oppressions of sin and death.

In Jesus' name, amen.