Sunday Live at Kootenai Community Church

Kootenai Church

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December 21, 2020

Sunday School and Worship Service at Kootenai Community Church

04:18: Hello, there you go. It is a privilege to be here, to be able to come into the house of the
04:27: Lord in freedom, be able to share the word of God is amazing to me. It's a privilege.
04:34: And before we get started this morning, let's open up with a word of prayer. Father, you alone are worthy to be praised.
04:40: You're an amazing God. You give us wisdom and guidance through the scriptures and you've provided a way for us to know you through them.
04:50: It's amazing to think that you care about us, that you have sent your son to die on the cross as a substitute for our sin, that we can have fellowship with you, to be able to be in your presence, to learn of you, to understand who you are.
05:09: It's such an amazing thing to be called a child of the King. And we pray today,
05:16: Lord, that as we teach and understand your word, that it will penetrate our hearts and our minds, that it will affect us in a way that motivates us to give you glory and to live our lives in obedience to you.
05:31: And for anybody that does not know the Lord, we pray today that the light that would shine on you, that it would draw you to the only savior that we have in Jesus Christ, and that you would be saved.
05:46: We praise your name, Lord, and ask for your blessing on our time today. In Jesus' name, amen.
05:54: Open your Bibles, if you would, to 1 John 1. We're gonna be looking at verses five through 10 today.
06:05: We went and opened up, did the opening verses last week, in verses one through four of 1
06:12: John, and we shared some things there. And the title of my message this morning is
06:19: The Requirements of a True Believer. The Requirements of a
06:24: True Believer. So let's go ahead and read our text for this morning in verse five.
06:30: This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light.
06:38: And in him, there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
06:51: But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
07:03: That's gonna be our text for this morning. Hopefully we'll get through all of it, I'm not sure.
07:09: But before we do, I wanna just recap just briefly what we shared last week, just so we catch everybody up to speed and bring it full circle to our text this morning.
07:23: We talked last week that John was writing to address a certain kind of heresy called
07:29: Gnosticism that was being introduced into the church. It was people that claim to have a superior knowledge.
07:38: They believe that the physical world was evil and that they had secret knowledge that only a select few could actually have.
07:47: They said that Jesus couldn't be God because he had a physical body, because if the physical world was evil,
07:53: Jesus had a physical body, therefore he couldn't be God. Their knowledge was not based on anything scriptural, it was based on their own intellect and mysticism.
08:04: And if you remember, John refutes this error pretty vigorously right from the opening verses, claiming right from the beginning that Jesus was both human and he was
08:16: God as well. He did that because he had firsthand testimony, because being an apostle, he walked with the
08:24: Lord. He said he had seen the Lord, he'd heard him, he'd handled him. So what was from the beginning, he said, the beginning of Jesus' human life, beginning of the gospel, the word of life, he said, was the same life that was with the
08:42: Father in eternity. Jesus was human and he was also God.
08:49: And then he said a very critical thing, and I think it's what
08:54: I grasped onto in verse three of the first opening verses, he proclaimed the truth that he had heard.
09:02: He was testifying of everything that he had heard and seen about Jesus. And the reason for that is so that we would have fellowship with one another, like -minded believers sharing their faith together, he said, we would have fellowship with one another and with others.
09:22: And the result of that fellowship is joy. We talked about that last week.
09:29: It's not a dictionary definition of joy, but it's a deep abiding, born out of a right relationship with the
09:38: Father kind of a joy that you just can't find anywhere else. So that's kind of the opening verses there that we talked about.
09:48: To proclaim Christ is so very important in those opening verses.
09:55: I just think about that. We proclaim Christ, it's something we should be doing in our daily lives all the time, because of the hope that we have within us, it just pours forth.
10:10: And we want to talk about him all the time. John was telling his readers that he had firsthand knowledge of the
10:17: Lord. And that was pretty cool. Being an apostle, he walked with Christ and heard many things that he had taught.
10:26: And he started off his letter very abruptly, if you remember, but the most important truth to defend against Gnosticism was
10:35: Christ himself. I mean, that he's human and he's divine. That's an important concept of those first verses.
10:44: False teachers were prevalent then, and they are as well today, aren't they?
10:51: You see them everywhere. They introduce their lies from within the body.
10:58: It's usually where it happens is inside the church, it happens. It's really important for us to know our
11:05: God. It's important for us to be able to understand our
11:10: Bibles, to proclaim that truth in defense of any kind of false teaching that we encounter.
11:19: I attended a church in Coeur d 'Alene around 2005 and 2006. And the main pastor there was getting up in age and he retired and a new pastor came in to the flock.
11:34: The new pastor slowly started to introduce false teaching into his sermons. He began to quote from known false teachers in his sermons.
11:46: He was referencing doctrine that was being twisted through this kind of teaching to fit man's preconceived ideas.
11:57: The deception was subtle at first and slow. And at first glance, it really sounded biblical, right?
12:06: There was a meetings and discussions because the elders were made aware of all of this.
12:12: They were made aware of all of this. There was a small percentage that recognized what was happening. And they approached the elders and asked them to look into it and try to figure out what was happening.
12:24: So that's when I say there was meetings and discussions and it became apparent that the leaders of the church were unable to spot the false teaching or if they were able to see it, they certainly did not call it out or come clean about it.
12:42: They sided with the pastor and perpetuated the heresy for quite a long time.
12:54: The faithful though wouldn't have anything to do with it. I mean, they created such an uproar that eventually the church just split.
13:04: There was no way that the true believers could stay with that false teaching and be in that church.
13:13: And eventually the pastor was booted out of there. But you know what?
13:20: The elders and the leaders of that church remained. Many of them are still there to this day.
13:26: They still do not recognize this teaching that is false. And that church has never ever recovered from that teaching.
13:37: So John's letter, this letter that we have here is really a warning, right?
13:42: It's to the believers. He's talking about dealing with heresy. He's talking about knowing who the real
13:49: God is. We need to understand, don't we, how to spot these false teachers.
13:55: Because it's usually a subtle twist on some kind of a truth that we all know.
14:02: We need to understand how to identify the false teachers, the false teaching and false converts as well.
14:11: The best way to do that is to know our Bibles backwards and forwards. This is what I've found. That whole situation at that church sent me on such a tangent because I realized at the time
14:23: I didn't know all the things I needed to know about the faith and about this false teaching.
14:29: And I just went crazy learning everything I possibly could. And it changed my life.
14:36: It put me on a different course. So we need to know what constitutes an authentic God and a true believer in Christ.
14:44: We need to understand that. As I mentioned before, my message today is the requirements of a true believer.
14:52: A test, if you will, of an authentic Christian. What do they look like? Well, in verse five, it says this, this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
15:09: True believers must have a proper view of God. They must have a proper view of God.
15:18: That first word, this in that sentence, this is the message. It's referring back, that word is referring back to the one spoken of in the previous verses.
15:31: This one, there is the reference of this one, this Jesus is who
15:38: John is referring to. This is the message we have heard from him, from Jesus.
15:45: This is not John's message, right? It's not John's message, it's Jesus' message that John heard.
15:52: This message, it says, we announced to you. Love that word, announce.
15:57: It's the Greek meaning, it says to bring back word, to bring back word.
16:03: John was bringing back word of all that he had seen about Christ and he's telling everybody in this letter all about it.
16:12: Here's what I've heard. I'm announcing to you what I have personally seen and heard and I'm bringing it back to you.
16:21: John uses, or Jesus uses John to deliver that message. A lot of times, it's weird because, you know,
16:31: God uses flawed human individuals like us to convey these truths, doesn't he?
16:37: He always uses us in some form or fashion, the lowliest of the lowly, it seems like.
16:45: Where we get our truth, though, is important. Where we get it from is very important. False teachers create their own truth, not found in the
16:54: Bible. They mix truth and error to accomplish their own agendas.
17:02: The message that John received came from a reliable source, though, didn't it? It came from the only source of truth,
17:08: Christ himself. The time John spent with Christ must have just changed his life so radically.
17:15: I mean, I can't imagine walking with Christ himself. When I was in Israel, I just imagined, you know, when
17:22: I was on the Sea of Galilee, there's Christ walking along the water. What would it have been like to be there and to see him?
17:31: I mean, how our lives would be impacted so greatly for those that believe.
17:36: And it just reminded me that we can't stay silent. When we encounter Christ, there's no way for us to be contained anymore.
17:46: Each of you, when you think back about it, when Christ saved you, were you able to stay silent about it, or were you telling everybody what had happened?
17:55: I mean, that's what happened to me. I mean, my family thought I was in some kind of a cult. They were like, this guy's a
18:02: Bible nut. He's somewhere crazy here. But I'm sure my zeal was apparent back then, but I'm positive that I did not have a lot of tact.
18:11: So that's probably some of the reason why they might have thought that. But we must remember that the message
18:19: John heard was not a human message. Not a human message. A human message really doesn't do us or anyone any good hearing it, does it?
18:31: The Gnostics had a human message. You see a lot of human messages in our world today that don't line up to the scriptures.
18:41: The message God is light, what we're gonna be talking about today it's supremely revealed in the person of Christ, the son of God himself.
18:51: The message that brings life is Christ. That's who brings life. He's the one.
18:58: We got a new heart and a new message at salvation, didn't we? My message before salvation was, hey, live for self.
19:08: It's all I care about is me. But then Christ came into my life and now the only thing
19:14: I can think about is how to live my life for Christ. That's everything is about him.
19:20: We should proclaim Christ every chance we get. We should crucify sin.
19:26: We should try to kill it at every turn because it destroys lives.
19:32: So we crucify it. We shouldn't waste time on things that don't matter or have very little impact.
19:39: We should be focused about the things that are the most important things, which is Christ himself. True followers of Jesus must have the right view of God.
19:50: The Gnostics didn't have a right view of God because they denied the humanity of Christ. Jesus is fully
19:57: God and fully man, but they didn't believe that. But that teaching is alive and well today.
20:03: Every religion we see has struggles with that. What better way to reveal the father than through the son though?
20:10: That's the best way. When someone says to me, I love Jesus, the first thing that comes to mind is which
20:17: Jesus are you talking about? Which Jesus are you talking about? They often say the same thing that the
20:24: Gnostics said. Well, he's just a man. He's just a man. He's not God.
20:30: He's not God. He might be a prophet, but he's not God. So many have a wrong idea about him.
20:37: They have the wrong idea about him, about whether he was God or not. Well, our text is gonna clearly address that.
20:47: Our entire faith rests on his shoulders. Everything about our faith is tied to the humanity and the divinity of Jesus.
21:01: And to get that wrong, I mean, that has eternal consequences, doesn't it? To get
21:06: Christ wrong has eternal consequences. Every religion wants to give us their definition about Jesus.
21:16: Seems like they all have their own way that they look at him. And you know what?
21:23: Within that, much confusion is created. People don't know what to believe.
21:29: There's so many conflicting ideas out there in the world today about who
21:34: Jesus is. It causes confusion. And you know, that's the devil.
21:41: He's always sowing some kind of doubt, isn't he? I mean, right from the very beginning in the garden, did
21:47: God really say that little kernel of doubt can enter into a person's life and it can deviate them from the path of Christ?
21:58: The devil is always sowing those kinds of doubt and confusion in our lives. But in our text today,
22:05: John is clear in that verse five when he says, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
22:14: I mean, I thought about this this week. How do you really use human words to define
22:19: God? That's so hard for me. It reminds me of theology class in college. It's all about how to define
22:26: God, how to understand who he is. God is like a pane of glass.
22:32: You see through it, you don't really see the glass, but he's there, and all these ways that we try to wrap our brains around who
22:40: God is. And I don't think human words can actually do it.
22:46: I'm not sure I can convey it even today, but I will try to do the best that I can. But defining
22:52: God as light is just not easy. It's just not easy to say, what does that mean,
22:57: God is light? When we think of light, though, we usually speak in terms of what light does, right?
23:05: Light shines in the darkness. It reveals truth, and it brings life to things.
23:14: That's how we normally think of life, but that doesn't really define God is light.
23:20: It doesn't really bring that home. The context of John here in what we're looking at seems to make sense to think of God in this way is that he is omniscient, he is morally perfect.
23:33: There isn't any blemish or defect at all in his character in any way. He's holy, he is morally pure, he is perfect in every way.
23:43: There is no possibility of sin within him at all.
23:49: I love this verse in Psalm 36, nine. Psalm 36, nine, it says this.
23:54: For with you is the fountain of life. For with you, for with God, is the fountain of life.
24:02: In your light, we see light, right? A fountain flows with water, that's a good picture.
24:10: It's a good picture. All of life comes from him. We need to continually drink from that fountain.
24:16: We need to continually be in his presence. In his light, we know how to love.
24:23: We know how to treat our wives, we know how to parent. We have all kinds of wisdom.
24:29: We stay in that light because that's the source of truth and how to live our lives in the best possible way to glorify him.
24:39: What John, I believe, is saying in all of this is that the message of Christ, his humanity, his work, his gospel message is the light that brings us into fellowship with the
24:51: God who is light. Right, the God who is light. Paul confirms this thought in 2
24:57: Corinthians 4, 6 when he says this, 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God, who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
25:19: Let me read that again. For God, who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
25:35: God's light shines out of the blackness of night into our hearts.
25:43: His light in a believer's life is the knowledge of God's salvation.
25:48: It's the knowledge of God's salvation. This light illuminates our hearts and our minds so that we're even able to comprehend his amazing knowledge and glory.
26:02: This knowledge and glory is seen in the face of Christ. That's how we know it. Generally speaking, the word is described as light in a general way, right?
26:14: We see that in scripture, that it's speaking of light in a general way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
26:21: That's Psalm 119, 105. But it is the light of the gospel, the light of the gospel that brings us into true fellowship with the
26:31: Father. Without that light, we don't have a relationship with a holy
26:36: God. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6, 16, it says, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion, amen.
26:57: I mean, think about this for a minute, right? God dwells in such amazing light.
27:05: He says it's unapproachable. Isaiah 6 describes how
27:10: Isaiah said he saw the Lord sitting on a throne. Seraphim stood above him, said, each of them had six wings.
27:21: Two, they covered their face. Two, it covered their feet. And two, it says they flew.
27:27: One Seraphim called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
27:34: The whole earth is full of his glory. The whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah said what?
27:41: Woe is me. Woe is me for I am ruined. Why is he ruined?
27:47: Because he fully understands his sin at that very moment cannot be in the presence of such holiness and beauty and splendor and holiness.
28:03: My point here is this. He's not accessible to sinful human beings that live in constant darkness.
28:13: Our sin keeps us separated from him. Hear me when I say this, that the possibility of fellowship between depraved human beings like you and I with the creator who is holy, holy, holy is because of one reason, and that is the incarnate son of God.
28:32: That's how we can embrace him and know him and have access right through Christ himself.
28:40: John said Christ was manifested. He was made known and revealed and that he proclaimed him to others, right?
28:50: And so that they could have fellowship with him. I love that. Without Christ, we would be in total darkness and separated from God.
29:00: True believers need to have a proper view of who God is. So we know how to understand him and approach him.
29:11: Second point here is true believers also need to understand the reality of sin. Look at verse six.
29:18: If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
29:26: We need to have and understand the reality of sin because there is all kinds of confusion about what that actually means today.
29:38: My first point under this is believers don't ignore sin. Believers do not ignore sin.
29:45: If we say that we have fellowship with him, we should be walking in the light. We should be walking in the light.
29:52: We gain that true fellowship through the gospel message. That's how we're all here together sharing is through the gospel.
30:00: We have a commonality there. That's what puts us in fellowship with the father and with each other.
30:07: Salvation puts us in the light. Our manner of living should always be in the light.
30:14: We should always be focused on it. Verse six though communicates that sometimes people fake true fellowship, don't they?
30:23: Sometimes they say, oh, I have fellowship, but then they walk in darkness is what it says.
30:29: There is a possibility in any church of having a mixture of true believers and imposters, isn't there?
30:41: There's always a possibility. Some who say they walk with God, but don't really do so because maybe of what others think of, maybe others think that they are saved.
30:53: See that a lot. They may have grown up in a Christian home, attended church all their lives, but have never really experienced saving grace.
31:03: They have to keep up appearances. They know deep down inside that they are not practicing the truth, but their pride will not allow them to repent.
31:14: There are also apostates who fall into this category, into this lie, but they do so because they're looking for an opportunity to sow discord in the body.
31:27: Their goal is to destroy the church and the testimony of the true saints. They also know that they lie and they never practice the truth, but they have to say they have fellowship because they want to blend in without being called out as apostates.
31:45: A true believer, though, can also fall into this category, can't they? It's possible that someone can claim fellowship that is a true believer, and at a certain point in time in their life, they can be walking in darkness.
31:58: Now, I think they're lying to themselves and they're not practicing the truth for sure, and they know it.
32:07: However, my belief in the scriptures is that a true believer can't stay in that darkness.
32:13: You're going to come out of that eventually because once God has a hold of you, he's not gonna let you go and you're gonna come back to that.
32:22: So eventually they come back into a right relationship with God. Sin in the life of a believer really should be miserable.
32:32: I don't know how they can stay in it because it's so miserable. If sin doesn't make you miserable, you might not be saved.
32:39: If you wallow in it and you love it, you have to check your salvation at the door and say, what is happening?
32:47: Because I don't know about you, but one day before salvation, I was sitting there in my sin and I was loving it.
32:56: I enjoyed it. I didn't mind it. But the second I got saved the very next day, what happened to me?
33:05: All of a sudden, the sin that I so loved before just wasn't fun anymore.
33:12: Just wasn't fun anymore. I thought, oh yeah, let's keep going. It was terrible. I was miserable and I had to leave it.
33:19: So a true believer, we really need to understand the reality of sin because it's devastating.
33:27: When I said we should crucify sin, it's like a minute by minute thing practically because it's so prevalent.
33:34: I mean, in our thoughts and when I was saved, I mean, I can clean up the big sins pretty easily, but the sin of the mind, that's what we have to be looking at all the time, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ so we can glorify him with our lives.
33:55: The second point under here, we find in verse eight. Read verse eight.
34:00: If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
34:06: Some claim to have no sin. Some claim to have no sin. And the word there, if we say that we have no sin in that verse, it's singular.
34:19: It seems like it's referring not to our sins as a whole, but to our sin nature, to our sin nature.
34:28: If we say that we have no sin nature, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
34:34: To deny your sin nature is a denial of the reality of the truth that God has revealed already for us.
34:43: Apparently some had missed Paul's instructions in Romans. I mean, many do today.
34:51: They have a high view of themselves, but they have a low view of sin. Well, Paul calls that out in Romans 3, chapter three,
35:01: Romans 10 through 17 verses. He says this, there is none righteous, not even one.
35:09: There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside.
35:16: Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.
35:23: Their throat is an open grave with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
35:34: Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known.
35:44: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Wow. To deny sin is to really be self -deceived.
35:54: It's self -deception. Some deny sin also though by calling it another name, right?
36:01: I just did a boo -boo. I didn't really sin. It's like no fault divorce, right?
36:08: Nobody takes the blame for anything. I mean, but yet the biblical concept of, you know, the two shall become flesh, it says, is ripped apart in a divorce.
36:20: Families are destroyed in a divorce. I'm here to tell you in every divorce someone's to blame.
36:27: There is sin in there. It's not no fault. It is someone's sin that destroys it.
36:33: And we can't just ignore that in our lives. Modern so -called
36:40: Christian psychology has put a spin on this, even though there really isn't such a thing as Christian psychology, right?
36:46: There's no such thing. But they've done a good job at calling sin by another name. You see that all the time.
36:53: James Dobson, Focus on the Family, Minnerth -Meyer Clinic, Larry Crabb, Henry Cloud, all of these so -called
37:02: Christian psychologists put another spin on sin because they call it by a different name, alcoholism, gambling, any kind of lust, covetousness, sexual sin.
37:14: It's often referred to as a disease. It's a mental issue.
37:20: You have problems mentally. It's not your sin. It's something that may have happened to you in your past.
37:27: Maybe you didn't have a father growing up or you experienced an abusive relationship with your family somehow, but the
37:36: Bible's clear here. Bible's very clear. In Mark, it says this, for from within, out of the heart of men proceeds evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
38:00: All these things proceed from within and defile the man. No one can deny sin.
38:08: And in Galatians, we read this, that these verses here were catapulted me from darkness to light.
38:16: This was the first verse I ever read when I was looking into the Bible. And it said this, now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
38:41: And who practices these things are not going to see the kingdom of God. I was very moved by that when
38:49: I read that for the first time, because I was doing every one of those things on that list, but about three of them.
38:56: And so sin is very prevalent. We can't deny it. We can't play games with sin.
39:03: We have to call sin sin and understand as a believer how that impacts our life.
39:10: The third point under this heading is some claim to have never sinned. Some claim to have never sinned.
39:17: Can you believe that? Verse 10, it says this, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
39:26: That verse is connected to verse nine, where it says if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive.
39:32: But what if we say that we have not sinned? Then what? Then what do we do?
39:38: I mean, how do I confess something that I don't believe I've ever done?
39:44: Why do I need to do that? John is addressing believers, remember, in this passage. So the idea here is not that they had never sinned.
39:52: It's just that after salvation, they weeded out sin in their life.
40:00: So to the point that they didn't sin anymore. I mean, I'm sure we've all done that, right? We've weeded out sin in our life.
40:07: We don't sin anymore. Not happening, not possible. This is a kind of sinless perfection that you see out in the world today.
40:18: It's hard to believe people believe this, but there were some here that were in this situation.
40:25: I read a story about that R .C. Sproul had told one time, and it was about a 19 -year -old who had basically one year of salvation under his belt.
40:36: He declared to R .C. Sproul that he had received the second blessing, and that because of that, he was now living a sinless life.
40:49: Well, of course, R .C. Sproul's not one to sit there and not say anything. So he took him to Romans chapter seven, and he addressed that, look at this,
41:00: Paul is dealing with the two natures, and he's dealing with very present and real sin.
41:06: It wasn't like pre -salvation sin. And the kid said, yeah,
41:13: I do agree with that. I agree that it was present -day sin, but he said that, well,
41:22: Paul just didn't receive the second blessing. So he couldn't live this life that I am living.
41:29: So I thought it was interesting that R .C. Sproul said that, so after, let me get this right, you're 19.
41:36: You've got one year of salvation under your belt. So you're telling me that you have more faith and obedience than the apostle
41:43: Paul. And kid looked at him with a straight face, he said, and said, yes.
41:52: Wow, that is crazy to me, because, I mean, because sin's so prevalent.
42:00: It's not something we can say, I don't have anymore. So we pay attention to that.
42:08: True believers also walk in the light. We walk in the light.
42:15: Verse seven, but if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
42:25: Now, walk is used literally in scripture, as I walk from here to there, but it's also used figuratively, spoken of as a person's way of life.
42:36: So that's what that says. But if we walk, that is insinuating there that we have a certain way that we carry ourselves, how we walk our daily life.
42:48: And it should be consistent with the revealed truth of God. Our daily habit, our walk, should not be in darkness as a believer.
42:59: Our daily habit should be in the light. We should walk daily in the light. Why? Because Jesus is the one who saved us, and he is light.
43:10: We live within that sphere. We continually strive to be close to God, to stay close to him.
43:18: I always say to my kids, you need to stay under God's umbrella. Well, that's just another idea for staying in the light.
43:26: Be close to our savior. We have to stay away from sin and darkness.
43:32: Anything that can hinder our relationship with God and with others, we pursue the light because of the fellowship that we have with one another and with Christ.
43:44: When we read 1 John 1, 3, it says, when we have heard what we have heard and seen, we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us.
43:55: We read that. And we talked last week that it was clear that the speaking of the fellowship was with other believers.
44:04: However, the context here in verse seven is different. It's a different context than we had with fellowship between one another in verse three.
44:15: It says, but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
44:21: The question here is, are we speaking of a believer to believer fellowship or a
44:26: Christian to God fellowship? I think the one another there could mean with other believers, but I honestly believe that the context here is fellowship with Christ and Christ has fellowship with us.
44:42: So it's a reciprocal. He interacts with us in fellowship. We interact with him as we remain in the light.
44:53: That's pretty cool. I love that. True believers also confess their sin.
45:01: True believers also confess their sin. Verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
45:14: That word confess is, the meaning of that is to agree with. It comes from a certain word called homologeo.
45:25: Comes from homos, the same, and logo, to say. To confess is to say the same thing, to agree with God that the sin in the life of a believer is destructive.
45:38: We say the same thing that God says about sin, how bad it is in a person's life.
45:46: But confessing is part of our daily life. Now, some think, well, I've already been saved.
45:52: You know, why do I need to confess my sin again? But as a believer, we are compelled to confess, to deal with our sin on a constant basis, sin that is in our lives on a daily basis, to remain in that relationship with God, to remain in that fellowship.
46:12: Whatever the light makes us aware of, I mean, we confess it. Whatever we know, we confess it.
46:20: When the Spirit points out sin in our life, we should immediately agree with him. We should say the same thing that God does about our sin and to confess it, because there's really no cleansing for excuses.
46:36: I didn't sin, I didn't really do that. There's really no cleansing for that. Unconfessed sin really does bring a loss of intimate, close fellowship that we have with God, so we want to keep that and maintain that.
46:50: When we confess, it says he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. He's faithful.
46:57: God is worthy. He's not going to go back on his word. He's going to do what he says he's going to do, and he's going to forgive us of our sins.
47:05: It says he's righteous. I mean, his standard demands it.
47:11: His way of living doesn't tolerate sin. And it says if we do those things, he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
47:19: I mean, cleanse is an Old Testament concept, right? I mean, we've heard that. The unclean person went through a purification process to deal with sin in their life.
47:29: To purify is to make clean. Jesus cleanses us from our sin, and he makes us clean.
47:37: But we have to be mindful of it. Last thing I'll say in summary is this.
47:43: John writes so that true believers may not sin. Look at chapter two, verse one.
47:48: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Wow, that's a good motivating reasons, right?
47:58: I'm writing this. Stay in the light. You must have a proper view of God to understand that.
48:06: You must know the reality of sin and how it impacts your fellowship with God and with other believers.
48:12: We are to confess our sins as the light reveals it to us. How come?
48:19: So that we don't sin, so that we have that fellowship, that connection with God and with others.
48:29: So that's the message today, the requirements of a true believer. Can we close in prayer?
48:38: Father, we love you and praise you. Your words are truth, and they are amazing.
48:47: We love you and we praise you. And we pray that our service today would be glorifying to you.
48:54: Give Jim wisdom and guidance as he brings the message. Help everyone to glean what we can from the scriptures, to motivate us to stay close to you,
49:07: Lord, to kill sin in our lives and to stay constantly in your light, the light that reveals truth and a way to live for us.
49:16: Lord, we praise your name and we just give you all the glory and praise in Jesus' name, amen.
56:46: ♪ Oh come, all you unfaithful ♪ ♪
57:00: Come, weak and unstable ♪ ♪ Come, know you are not alone ♪ ♪
57:24: For God has done ♪ ♪
57:29: Christ is born, Christ is born,
57:38: Christ is born, born ♪ ♪
57:57: With fears unspoken, come, taste of his perfect love ♪ ♪
58:09: Oh come, guilty and hiding ♪ ♪ There is no need to run, see what your
58:20: God has done ♪ ♪
58:25: Christ is born, Christ is born,
58:33: Christ is born, born ♪ ♪
58:43: He's loved, slain for his promises peace, peace, peace ♪
58:55: For those who believe He's the
59:01: Lamb who was given Slain for His promises
59:11: Peace for those who believe
59:16: So come, though you have nothing Come, He is the offering
59:26: Come, see what your God has done
59:33: Christ is born
01:00:51: Unto us from on high
01:00:59: Reaching down into the deepest night
01:01:08: To the world hope has come
01:01:15: In the dark, the light of life
01:01:27: What a mystery, oh what love Oh, how can it
01:01:41: To us set aside
01:02:36: It be that, it be that Grace has come here to see
01:03:16: And bring the sinner home, live to die
01:03:26: Once upon a midnight
01:05:23: Heaven's song broke through the air
01:05:28: Peace and goodwill toward men Bethlehem Once upon a bed of straw
01:05:44: Slept the sovereign Son of God Lord of the universe
01:05:53: Breathing the dust of earth Wonderful, awesome
01:06:03: Lord Mighty God Our Messiah Name above In the highest
01:06:34: Once upon a splintered cross Jesus died to rescue
01:06:43: Of our shame and sin
01:06:49: Nailed to the tree with Him Wonderful Counselor Our Messiah Name above In the
01:07:26: Once upon a brilliant day Christ the
01:07:32: Conqueror Heaven and nature sing
01:07:40: Praise to the King of Kings Our Messiah Name above In the
01:09:30: Life descended to The ageless rock of ages
01:09:37: In a manger laid Behold the Word that bore our flesh
01:09:45: Caught inside an infant's chest
01:09:53: The infinite incarnate In a virgin's hands
01:09:58: The radiance of the Father In the Son of Behold the peace that pierced the night
01:10:10: Of nations in a baby's cry
01:10:16: Emmanuel Glory beside us
01:10:29: God Himself With us now to dwell
01:10:35: Emmanuel Endless King of heaven
01:10:52: Crowned with guilt and shame The cornerstone was fastened
01:10:58: To a wooden friend that crushed
01:11:08: And died to pay the price of our rebirth Emmanuel Glory beside us
01:11:25: God Himself With us now to dwell
01:11:32: Emmanuel Might for meekness
01:11:46: All the glory Be to Jesus Love has sought us
01:11:55: Grace has reached us All the glory
01:12:01: Be to Jesus Light and dark
01:12:13: Be to Jesus Love has sought us
01:12:19: Grace has reached us Emmanuel In the
01:12:41: Himself Now to dwell Himself With us now to dwell
01:13:11: Himself Emmanuel A major, a baby is born
01:13:59: The sovereign of heaven Whom angels adore
01:14:04: Is wrapped in the weakness Of our mortal Little Lord Jesus Asleep on the
01:14:17: A servant is born
01:14:33: Made nothing to raise up The hopeless and poor
01:14:39: With grace as His burden And love as His yoke
01:14:46: The gentle Lord Jesus Will shepherd our souls
01:14:53: A Savior is born
01:15:08: The crown He'll be given We'll pierce Him with thorns
01:15:14: The King will be cursed With our sin and our shame
01:15:22: Seamless Lord Jesus Will die in danger
01:15:40: A lion in weakness Will tremble at His mighty hold
01:15:48: His mercy will triumph And death will be slain
01:15:55: The risen Lord Jesus Forever will reign
01:16:07: Glory to Jesus forever We lift high the name
01:16:14: Of our Savior Our glory to Jesus forever
01:16:23: We lift high the name Of our Savior We lift high the name
01:16:42: Of Jesus forever We lift high the name
01:16:48: Of our Savior Made us sinless
01:17:42: Reflecting in our strength
01:17:54: Death was the wage we earned God given to bless us
01:18:10: We recently restless
01:18:15: When will you come Lord how we ache for you
01:18:38: Sanctuary Good morning everybody
01:19:23: Welcome to Kootenai Church For those of you in the hallway Would you come inside and join us
01:19:29: And please stand if you haven't already As we sing Joyful, joyful, we adore you
01:19:35: We sing to thee
01:20:07: Son of God Joys in the birth
01:20:35: Shepherds kneel before you Take this time and greet each other this morning
01:21:28: I just realized I don't have a microphone on So I'll use this microphone
01:21:34: And then I'll go get dressed during the break There's a blue pickup truck in the parking lot
01:21:39: With the lights on with Montana license plates So if that belongs to you You need to go correct that And if you have jumper cables after the service
01:21:47: You can go find the truck with the blue license With the blue truck with the Montana license plate And give them a hand
01:21:52: And also we have a Christmas Eve service This Friday night Sorry, Thursday night at 6 .30
01:21:59: So you're welcome to join us for that Turn your Bibles to the book of Isaiah To chapter 9 Isaiah chapter 9
01:22:14: We're going to read together the first seven verses And you can put some bookmark or something there
01:22:20: Because we're going to be returning to this passage During the service today Isaiah chapter 9
01:22:25: Beginning at verse 1 But there will be no more gloom For her who was in anguish
01:22:31: In earlier times he treated the land of Zebulun And the land of Naphtali with contempt But later on he shall make it glorious By the way of the sea
01:22:39: On the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles The people who walk in darkness
01:22:44: Will see a great light Those who live in a dark land The light will shine on them You shall multiply the nation
01:22:50: You shall increase their gladness They will be glad in your presence As with the gladness of harvest
01:22:56: As men rejoice when they divide the spoil For you shall break the yoke
01:23:01: Of their burden And the staff on their shoulders The rod of their oppressor As at the battle of Midian For every boot of the booted warrior
01:23:09: In the battle tumult And cloak rolled in blood Will be for burning, fuel for the fire For a child will be born to us
01:23:16: A son will be given to us And the government will rest on his shoulders And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor Mighty God, Eternal Father Prince of Peace There will be no end to the increase
01:23:28: Of his government or of peace On the throne of David and over his kingdom To establish it and to uphold it
01:23:34: With justice and righteousness from then on And forevermore The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this
01:23:40: Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads
01:23:49: Our gracious God These are promises that pertain to the future Of your son and your kingdom
01:23:54: And of your people And we are grateful that by your grace And by your mercy you have appointed this for us
01:24:00: That you have called us to this We anticipate and look forward With great expectation to the kingdom
01:24:06: Of the Lord Jesus Christ And our place in it and what you will accomplish Through us before we arrive there
01:24:12: We thank you for that reward which is ours To hope for and to expect We thank you for the blessing that it is
01:24:17: To gather here together as your people And to worship you and to fix our minds And our hearts upon things that are to come
01:24:23: And we pray that through this you would sanctify us As we set our hearts on heavenly things May you continue to Make us holy, glorify your great name
01:24:32: And sanctify us in the truth We commit this time and ourselves to you In Christ's name, Amen Rejoice Unto you is born
01:25:24: A baby boy Mighty God King of kings
01:25:30: Glory in the highest Peace on earth
01:25:35: All is well The Father's gift of love Emmanuel Good news
01:25:42: Great joy Unto you is born A baby boy
01:25:51: Great joy And the government
01:25:57: Will be upon His shoulders In His hands
01:26:04: He holds the universe In place His feet will walk
01:26:13: The path of peace And freedom His eyes of love
01:26:21: Are filled with healing The kingdoms of this world
01:26:29: Will bow before Him In meekness power
01:26:43: On His head He wears the crown of glory His name will be
01:26:52: Upon His feet
01:26:58: Good news Great joy Unto you is born
01:27:03: A baby boy King of kings
01:27:09: Glory in the highest Peace on earth
01:27:14: All is well The Father's gift of love Emmanuel Good news
01:27:22: Great joy Unto you is born A baby boy
01:27:28: Great joy Counselor Mighty prince of peace
01:27:42: His kingdom Will reign For all eternity
01:27:49: Good news Great joy
01:27:55: Unto you is born A baby boy Mighty God King of kings
01:28:02: Glory in the highest Peace on earth
01:28:08: All is well The Father's gift of love Emmanuel Good news
01:28:15: Great joy Unto you is born King of kings Peace on earth
01:28:20: The Father's gift of love Emmanuel Unto you is born A baby boy
01:28:34: Great joy Alright, please stand
01:29:22: Joy to the wisdom Let earth receive
01:29:29: Her King Nature's theme
01:29:41: And nature's theme
01:29:46: Joy to the Savior Repeat the sounding joy
01:30:02: Repeat the sounding joy Repeat, repeat The sounding joy
01:30:09: No more Let sins and sorrows Grow Or thorns infest the
01:30:17: Grove He comes to make His blessings flow
01:30:23: For as the curses Spell For as the curses spell For as, for as The curses spell
01:30:33: He rules the world And makes the nations
01:30:40: Know His love His righteousness
01:30:47: And wonders of His love And wonders of His love And wonders, wonders
01:30:54: Of His love Alright, I have a feeling something wasn't working behind us
01:31:01: So before we move forward Let's see if we can get it fixed Alright, at least it was a familiar song
01:31:25: Sing glory To the new Peace on earth
01:31:32: And mercy In my own God and sinners Reconciled Joyful all ye
01:31:41: Nations rise Join the triumph Of the skies
01:31:47: With angelic Hosts proclaim Christ is born
01:31:54: In Bethlehem Hark the Herald angels
01:31:59: Sing glory To the Newborn King Christ by highest heaven
01:32:09: Adored Christ the everlasting Lord Great in time
01:32:16: Behold Him come Offspring of The virgin's womb
01:32:23: Veiled in flesh The Godhead see Hail the incarnate
01:32:29: Jesus Man with hand to dwell
01:32:35: Jesus Our Emmanuel Sing glory
01:32:45: To the Newborn Prince of Peace Hail the
01:32:55: Son of righteousness Light and Light to all
01:33:01: He brings Prince with wings
01:33:07: While He lays His glory by Born the
01:33:17: East the sons of earth Born to give
01:33:22: Them second birth Angels sing
01:33:29: Glory to Let us
01:34:07: Worship come let us Adore Jesus Messiah Our Savior is
01:34:15: Born Carol His glory Sing His sweet Name Thanksgiving Angels proclaiming
01:34:36: To earth Join with the Shepherds in all
01:34:41: Of His blood Join all creation Rejoicing His Born Who has been born
01:35:00: Jesus the Righteous Messiah Has come
01:35:15: Salvation is Born For told
01:35:29: Him the Promise of God The hope of salvation
01:35:34: And light of a Stable at birth
01:35:42: To whom Let's adore
01:36:11: Worship before Let us
01:36:45: Adore Jesus Messiah Our Savior Is born
01:36:52: In the gospel of Luke Chapter 2 verses 12 -14
01:37:09: It says This will be a sign for you You will find a baby wrapped in Claws and lying in a manger
01:37:16: And suddenly there appeared with the angel A multitude of the heavenly host Praising God and saying
01:37:22: Glory to God in the highest and on earth Peace among men With whom
01:37:27: He is pleased But child
01:37:34: Is desolate To rest On Mary's lap
01:37:42: Is sleeping Whom angels Greet With alums
01:37:50: Speak While shepherds Walk to peace
01:37:59: This is Christ the King With shepherds
01:38:06: Gone and Angels sing Peace To bring
01:38:13: Him the Son Of God I see in such
01:38:30: Meekness Where hearts are
01:38:36: Free Therefore sinners
01:38:43: Hear The silent Word Preaching Now Spirit shall pierce
01:38:54: Them through The cross Of their soul
01:39:18: Bring Him Into His bosom And bring salvation
01:39:33: Prince Raise the song
01:39:44: On high Sing the Joy Joyful cry
01:39:57: The son of God Find again in your copy of God's word
01:40:16: Isaiah The book of Isaiah in the ninth chapter Isaiah chapter 9
01:40:30: And when you found your place let's bow In prayer before we begin Our father we pray that you would
01:40:36: Open our eyes and our hearts to your word It is our hearts that need to be illumined By the gift and grace of your
01:40:42: Holy Spirit So that we may understand your word And that we may give to you affection And hearts full of desire to Obey you and your word
01:40:50: We pray that you would fix our hearts and our minds upon Heavenly things and upon Christ And upon the future that we have with Him And do so from this passage we pray in Christ's name
01:40:59: Amen I had no idea What the nature or the content
01:41:04: Of the song was going to be that the Choir sang at the beginning of the service today I was listening to the
01:41:10: Practice before the service and they started Singing this passage in Isaiah 9 Verses 6 and 7 and I thought wow that works out
01:41:16: Really well with what I had planned to preach And so I without knowing any Of that and I swear to you
01:41:21: I didn't know any of that I chose this passage to preach from today And I say all of that just to remind you that when
01:41:26: Something does go well with my preaching it's usually Completely accidental which it Was in this case and it was a good
01:41:32: Gift of God's providence to us So we're going to be looking today at Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 in a little bit of that context
01:41:38: And it's always my goal around Christmas and Easter to Do something that is in Keeping with the themes of those two holidays
01:41:46: I don't usually arrange my preaching schedule Around holidays on the calendar but There are two exceptions and that's
01:41:52: Christmas And Resurrection Sunday and even At those two occasions I try to take a little Bit of a break or I try and incorporate
01:41:59: The themes into whatever passage we're Dealing with in the normal schedule Or course of my preaching and we've been in Hebrews Last week it was somewhat easy
01:42:06: To do that because the text in Hebrews 10 Talks about the incarnation of Christ And one of his reasons for coming into the world
01:42:12: That the Father prepared a body for him And that body was to be offered up as a sacrifice So that came quite naturally last week
01:42:19: But as we look at the next passage In Hebrews it doesn't really tie in As specifically so I determined To take a break from the book of Hebrews which
01:42:26: We've been in in recent months Recent years and to do something A little bit different so that's why we're in Isaiah 9 today and we're going to be looking at A little bit of a different theme last week we saw
01:42:36: How one of the purposes of the coming of Christ Was to offer his body as a sacrifice And it was really
01:42:43: That passage deals With the priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and today
01:42:48: We're going to be transitioning a little bit And talking about the Kingly office of the
01:42:54: Lord Jesus Christ And what he fulfilled and what was promised Concerning the messianic Expectation that a king would
01:43:00: Be born as both a savior And a prophet and a priest And so that is in fact what the
01:43:06: Jews of Jesus' day expected They had a very intense And rich messianic expectation
01:43:13: That all revolved around the Messiah being a king And they expected this because the Old Testament Taught so much about the kingdom of The Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of the
01:43:22: Messiah And that it would be David's kingdom and that he would Rule and reign over the house of David And over on the throne of David and the city
01:43:28: Of David, that was what was promised in the Old Testament and the Jews didn't expect Jesus to come in the way that he did
01:43:34: Nor to be the type of person that he was They weren't expecting him To be born in a manger
01:43:40: They weren't expecting him to be born to a Poor couple, an obscure couple Who lived in a backwater
01:43:46: Town off in Hickville of Israel In the northern part of Israel, they weren't expecting any of that They weren't expecting
01:43:54: A Christ who would be meek And lowly, who would come and teach And preach, they weren't expecting one
01:44:00: Who would be subject to the forces Of Rome and end up dying on a cross At the hands of Roman executioners
01:44:07: That was the last thing that they would have expected They were expecting a king And it is interesting how often in both the
01:44:12: Old And the New Testament, the promise of Christmas Or the promise of the coming of the Messiah Is coupled with the promise of his
01:44:18: Kingdom and his role as a king Jesus is And he will be the king of Israel And the identification of him as King runs all the way through the
01:44:28: Old Testament And all the way through the New Testament The overwhelming expectation Of the
01:44:33: Jewish people at the time of Jesus Was that the Messiah would be a ruler A prince, a king
01:44:39: That he would sit on the throne Of David and that he would rule over the Kingdom of David and that his kingdom
01:44:44: Would have no end. They expected Him to come and to rule and reign From the city of Jerusalem And to have an earthly kingdom
01:44:53: You say, why did the Why did the Jews expect that? Because that was what the Old Testament promised
01:44:59: And the Old Testament did not Promise that in some Obscure corner of some
01:45:05: Obscure passage of some Obscure book of the Old Testament On one or two occasions
01:45:11: The Old Testament made that promise Repeatedly and there are Massive passages
01:45:17: And texts of the Old Testament that Describe the nature of that kingdom And the nature of his rule and of His reign and those promises
01:45:24: Are on nearly every book In nearly every book of the Old Testament The psalms are prolific
01:45:30: With messianic psalms that describe The kingdom and the rule and the reign Of that messianic kingdom.
01:45:35: That was the Old Testament Expectation. You say, why did the Jews miss it then? Why did the
01:45:41: Jews miss the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? They were expecting A king, is that all that they were expecting?
01:45:46: Shouldn't they also have expected one Born in Bethlehem as Micah 5 2 promised? Shouldn't they have expected one born of a
01:45:52: Virgin as Isaiah 7 14 promised? Shouldn't they have expected one who would be Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and Betrayed by a close confidant and end up Dying of suffering on a cross as Psalm 22
01:46:02: Describes? Shouldn't they have expected One who would come and bear our sins And by whose wounds and stripes
01:46:08: We would be healed? A perfect Servant who would come to do the will of the Father who himself would die in the place
01:46:14: Of transgressors as Isaiah 53 Promised? Why did they miss all of The first, the promises regarding The first coming of the
01:46:21: Lord Jesus Christ And just focus in and expect And make much of the promises
01:46:26: Of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? How could they have missed him at the First coming? They missed him
01:46:32: For a couple of different reasons For one, because Even though his rejection was
01:46:39: Predicted and promised In the Old Testament The nature of his ministry
01:46:44: Spread across two advents Or two comings was not specifically And explicitly declared in the
01:46:50: Old Testament In fact we see many times in The same passage of scripture promises Concerning the first coming of the
01:46:56: Lord Jesus Christ And promises concerning the second coming Of the Lord Jesus Christ and they are in the same Passage sometimes the same verse and sometimes
01:47:02: The same sentence Sometimes the same sentence they're put together And the fact that those promises would
01:47:08: Be fulfilled by him in not just one Advent the first one and not just the second Advent but over two separate
01:47:14: Advents separated by time the fact That those promises would be fulfilled in that way Was not something anticipated and expected
01:47:20: Under the Old Testament it wasn't something Revealed under the Old Covenant A second reason that the
01:47:26: Jews Missed him at the first coming Is because they didn't understand how the prophecies And the promises regarding his first coming
01:47:32: Could be fulfilled just as literally As the promises and the prophecies Regarding his second coming how is
01:47:38: It that this one who is supposed to Reign and rule on the throne of David Forever over the nations
01:47:45: Is also Going to suffer and die And be rejected by his people Without the revelation of the
01:47:52: New Testament and in the person of Christ you would Never be able to see how do these two things Could go together how can the one who is
01:47:58: Supposed to be universally worshipped By all the nations be rejected By all the nations at the same time how
01:48:04: Can he rule and reign and suffer And die and because they couldn't see how these Two things would go together
01:48:10: They instead began to spiritualize and sort Of allegorize and take in a spiritual Sense all the promises regarding his first Coming so they would look at Isaiah 53
01:48:18: And Psalm 22 and they would say well Certainly those cannot possibly be fulfilled Literally just as they're written instead
01:48:24: This suffering must be Allegorically or symbolically speaking of The nation of Israel maybe it's
01:48:29: Israel That's going to bear our stripes and Be afflicted and Rejected of men
01:48:35: Isaiah 53 Maybe it's the nation that that's Speaking of or they would begin to think Maybe or they they suggested
01:48:42: Maybe these promises will be fulfilled In two separate persons one of them would Come and fulfill the office of Messiah as the
01:48:48: Suffering servant and one would come and fulfill the Office of the Messiah as the ruling and reigning king But because they could not see how
01:48:54: Those two prophecies those two ideas of a Messiah could fit together they began to Spiritualize the first one so when he showed up As meek and lowly and humble
01:49:01: Jesus Suffering and dying at the hands Of men they rejected that because They said that can't possibly be
01:49:07: Our Messiah and listen Jews today reason the exact Same way he can't
01:49:13: Possibly be our Messiah our Messiah Is going to come as a ruling and reigning king I think
01:49:18: Christians This is not to get into an eschatological debate I think Christians today make The exact same mistake in the other direction
01:49:26: Now we have eschatological Camps that emphasize So much the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that they refuse to take
01:49:33: Literally in a straightforward fashion the Promises of his second coming That there will be an actual kingdom
01:49:38: That there will be an actual king And that he will rule and reign on the throne of his Father David and over it forever
01:49:45: And forever so that Brings us to Isaiah 9 Verse 6 and verse 7 we're going to be looking at these
01:49:51: Two verses today These two verses I think are two of probably The most used and yet least taken
01:49:57: Seriously verses in of all of the Christmassy verses that we attach and Put on Christmas ornaments and Christmas cards
01:50:03: We're familiar with verse 6 for a child Will be born to us a son will be given to us And the government will rest on his shoulders
01:50:08: And his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God eternal father prince of peace typically When we quote that verse
01:50:15: We quote it this way for a child would Be born to us a son will be given to us Ellipsis That's it that's ellipsis as if that's all
01:50:22: That there is to the promise and yet Verse 6 describes the government resting upon His shoulders his name will be called wonderful Counselor mighty
01:50:29: God the eternal father prince of Peace and listen verse 7 is just as much A Christmas versus verse 6 is
01:50:34: Look at verse 7 there will be no End to the increase of his government or A peace and on the throne of David and over his
01:50:40: Kingdom to establish it and to Uphold it with justice and righteousness from then On and forevermore the zeal
01:50:46: Of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this Now to take that passage that Promise of a Messiah and to cut it into The middle and to suggest well verse 6 really describes
01:50:54: Christmas is to do I think damage To the the reputation of the person The work of the Lord Jesus Christ because This describes two separate comings
01:51:02: Remember earlier when I said sometimes the promises Of the first coming and the second coming are Together in the same passage sometimes the
01:51:09: Same verse and even in the same sentence You see it here in verse 6 and 7 unto Us a child is born unto us
01:51:14: A son is given That's the first advent And the government will rest upon His shoulders and to his kingdom
01:51:22: There will be no end the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish it that's The second coming it's all the same
01:51:28: Passage this is all the same Person and listen if we take The promises regarding his first coming
01:51:34: Literally just as stated I Believe we have to take the promises of his second coming Literally just as stated
01:51:40: You can't avoid that we don't Switch our hermeneutic in the middle of a sentence And say this is literal that's
01:51:47: Spiritual that's not how we handle Scripture not at all All right let me describe to you
01:51:53: The context here because verses 6 and 7 Become even more magnificent when we Understand the context in which this came
01:51:58: Particularly to the Jews in Isaiah's day Isaiah wrote toward the end of the southern kingdom Just prior to the
01:52:04: Babylonian Captivity which resulted or the Babylonian Invasion which resulted in the Babylonian captivity The northern kingdom had long ago
01:52:10: Fallen and Isaiah is right at the end he's watching The dissolution of his of his of the Southern kingdom for him for The Jews in Isaiah's day the memory
01:52:18: Of the Davidic kingdom and the Davidic monarchy With all of the power and the wealth and the Glory and the peace and security of that That was a distant memory they had
01:52:26: International enemies who were knocking On the gates of Jerusalem and on the cities Inside of of Judea and They were threatening to take over and They were stronger nations than Israel was
01:52:36: At the time and and there all they Knew of the Davidic monarchy was hundreds Of years earlier it was a great and it was a glorious Thing but the kingdom of Isaiah's Day was nothing like the kingdom of David's day
01:52:48: And spiritually the nation was at an all -time Low they were they were involved in Rampant apostasy and spiritual
01:52:54: Harlotry idolatry was all over The place in fact i want to just take you Back to isaiah chapter 1 and this will
01:53:00: Be quick because we're not going through 9 chapters today But i just want you to get a flavor for what Isaiah was dealing with in his day
01:53:06: Isaiah chapter 1 i want you to notice In verses 3 and 4 the spiritual picture That isaiah paints
01:53:13: An ox knows its owner and A donkey its master's manager but Israel does not know my people do not understand
01:53:19: Alas sinful nation People weighed down with iniquity offspring Of evildoers sons who act corruptly
01:53:25: They've abandoned the lord they have Despised the holy one of israel they have Turned away from him Where will you be stricken again as you continue
01:53:32: In your rebellion the whole head Is sick and the whole heart Is faint look at this apostasy
01:53:38: Described beginning in verse 10 Hear the word of the lord you rulers of sodom give Ear to the instruction of god you people of Gomorrah he's calling them to repentance what
01:53:46: Are your multiplied sacrifices to me Says the lord i've had enough of your burnt Offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle i
01:53:52: Take no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs And goats when you come to appear before Me who requires of you this trampling of My courts bring your worthless offerings
01:54:00: No longer incense is an abomination To me new moon and sabbath the calling Of assemblies i cannot endure
01:54:06: Iniquity and the solemn assembly i hate Your new moon festivals and your appointed Feast they become a burden to me i'm weary Of bearing them so when you spread out
01:54:14: Your hands in prayer i'll hide my eyes From you yes even though you multiply prayers I will not listen your hands are covered
01:54:20: With blood he calls him to repentance in Verse 16 wash yourselves make yourselves Clean remove the evil of your deeds from My sight cease to do evil learn to do
01:54:28: Good seek justice reprove the ruthless Defend the orphan plead for the widow Beginning in verse 18
01:54:34: Judgment is promised come now and let us reason Together says the lord though your sins are as scarlet They will be as white as snow though they are red like Clemson they'll be light white like they will be like Wool if you consent and obey you will eat
01:54:44: The best of the land but if you refuse and Rebel you will be devoured by the sword Truly the mouth of The lord has spoken
01:54:52: Verse 21 to 23 described their iniquity How the faithful city has become a harlot She who was full of justice righteousness
01:54:58: Once lodged in her but now murderers Your silvers become dross your drink diluted With water your rulers are rebels and Companions of thieves everyone loves a bribe
01:55:06: And chases after rewards they do not defend The orphan nor does the widow's plea come before Them and verses 24 and 25
01:55:12: Describe the judgment on those adversaries Therefore the lord god of hosts the mighty one of Israel declares ah i will be relieved
01:55:18: Of my adversaries and avenge myself On my foes i will also turn my hand Against you and will smelt away your
01:55:24: Dross as with lie and will remove all Your ally alloy He's threatening judgment on the nation
01:55:30: For their spiritual apostasy and their Wickedness then chapter 2 describes the Coming kingdom of christ chapter 3 4 5 6 even in chapter 8 there's judgment prophesied upon Damascus and assyria as Isaiah focuses judgment the
01:55:44: Prophecies of judgment upon the nation of israel Because of their rampant spiritual apostasy And their adultery spiritual
01:55:50: Adultery and all of the wickedness going on Inside the nation at the time it was hardly A righteous man anywhere in the nation
01:55:56: And wickedness was exalted and Wickedness was approved at the highest levels Of the entire society it was
01:56:02: Corrupt from head to toe and god Says the only thing to do with this is to judge All of that sin and the
01:56:08: Scope of that judgment expands out and even Incorporates other nations in chapter 8 And then we get to the end of chapter 8 and look
01:56:14: At verse 20 i'm sorry Verse 21 they will pass through the Land hard pressed and famished and It will turn out that they are hungry they
01:56:22: Will be enraged and Cursed their king and their god as they face Upward then they will look to the earth and Behold distress and darkness
01:56:30: The gloom of anguish and they Will be driven away into darkness That is a solemn
01:56:36: Promise of judgment That is dark So then you may say well With all of that spiritual apostasy
01:56:44: And all of that wickedness And the promise of judgment Destruction from foreign enemies
01:56:50: And the davidic monarchy lying In ruins almost no Spiritual hope almost no
01:56:56: Political hope whatsoever Almost no way that they could Ever foresee the promises
01:57:02: Of of a king and a kingdom For their nation ever coming to pass In that context we may ask
01:57:09: Ourselves in the midst of all of that apostasy Does that mean that god's promises That he made to david so many centuries
01:57:15: Earlier that god has set those aside As god determined that Because of their spiritual apostasy
01:57:20: They have forfeited those promises Or will god still Fulfill his promises to the nation
01:57:27: Even in spite of their apostasy And in spite of their sinfulness And their wickedness Even in spite of their disobedience
01:57:33: Will the lord bring to pass All that he has promised to them For his glory for his namesake
01:57:40: Because he promised it Or is what he promised Conditional upon their obedience
01:57:47: Has god set aside His promises to the nation Because of their sinfulness And the answer to that question
01:57:52: Is found in chapter 9 And the answer is no After that Dark promise of judgment
01:58:00: At the end of chapter 8 Look at verse 1 of chapter 9 There will be no more gloom for her Who was in anguish in earlier times
01:58:06: He treated the land of zebulun The land of nephtoli with contempt But later on he shall make it glorious By the way of the sea
01:58:12: On the other side of jordan Galilee of the gentiles The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light Those who live in a dark land
01:58:19: The light will shine on them The gentiles will see that is Verse 3 you shall multiply the nation You shall increase their gladness
01:58:25: They will be glad in your presence As with the gladness of harvest As men rejoice when they divide the spoil
01:58:30: For you shall break the yoke of their burden And the staff on their shoulders The rod of the oppressor As at the battle of midian
01:58:36: In spite of all that judgment that is to come God will destroy the oppressors And he will liberate the nations And restore their gladness
01:58:44: Verse 5 for every boot of the booted warrior In the battle of tumult And the cloak rolled in blood
01:58:49: Will be for burning fuel for the fire No more war no more destruction No more nation rising against nation
01:58:56: How will these promises be bought to pass Verse 6 For a child will be born to us
01:59:01: A son will be given to us And the government will rest on his shoulders And his name will be called wonderful counselor
01:59:06: Mighty God eternal father prince of peace And there will be no end to the increase of his government Or of peace for on the throne of David and over his kingdom
01:59:12: To establish it and to uphold it with justice And righteousness from then on and forevermore The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this
01:59:19: See that is a promise Of a literal physical Davidic kingdom And a king given to the nation
01:59:26: At their lowest point Right on the cusp of the worst judgment They would ever face as a nation
01:59:32: And yet God says This promise It's still yours You will eventually be glorified
01:59:40: And you will enjoy that glory And I will restore your gladness Because a son will be born to us
01:59:45: A child will be given to us And the government will rest upon his shoulders Verse 6 describes this king
01:59:51: We have in verse 6 a description of his coming and of his character And then verse 7 describes his kingdom So that's our outline we're already half way through it
01:59:57: And that just sets up the context So now we have to look at this king The description of the king and his kingdom
02:00:03: Notice first his coming in verse 6 A child will be born to us A son will be given to us I want you to notice that he would just be born
02:00:10: It would be a natural birth He would come into the world in a very natural way Now in one sense it was supernatural
02:00:15: Because it was the womb of a virgin And in one sense it was supernatural Because his birth was attended by angels
02:00:21: Who appeared to shepherds out in the fields Nearby the city of Bethlehem And announced his birth
02:00:26: Now his birth was natural In the sense that it was just as any other human is born From a woman
02:00:32: He came as a child He came as a son He came as a baby He didn't descend directly from heaven He didn't come out fully grown from heaven
02:00:38: And descend in the clouds and come here to earth In that way Instead it was a very natural birth But in another sense it was supernatural
02:00:45: Because I doubt that any of you were born of a virgin And I doubt that any of your birth was announced by angels To shepherds nearby
02:00:51: So it was very supernatural and unnatural in one sense But in terms of the Physical activity of it
02:00:57: It was a very natural and normal birth And a survey of the Old Testament shows that They were to expect one who would be born
02:01:03: And who would come from a certain lineage It would come from Adam And from one of Adam's descendants, Noah And from one of Noah's particular three sons,
02:01:11: Shem And Shem would have a descendant named Abraham So to Abraham was given the promise Of the land and the seed and the kingdom
02:01:17: And that this king would come through Abraham Abraham had a son Isaac Two sons, and it would come through Isaac and not
02:01:23: Ishmael And from Isaac's line it would come from Jacob And not Esau, and of all of Jacob's sons It would come from Judah and not any of the other
02:01:30: Eleven sons The promise would be fulfilled through Judah And so one comes from Judah, David Who becomes king over the nation of Israel And to David God says,
02:01:39: I will raise up For you a descendant and I will give him your throne And he will rule over the house of Jacob Forever and ever into his kingdom there will be no end
02:01:46: So you can trace the physical lineage Of the king, the coming king Through all of those Old Testament patriarchs
02:01:52: Then we come to the Lord Jesus Christ And he is the one who comes from the tribe of Judah Through David, he is a descendant of David Through both
02:01:59: Joseph and Mary Legally through Joseph, physically through Mary He's a descendant of David in that regard
02:02:04: And David can trace his way all the way back up Through Adam We ought to expect from the Old Testament prophecy
02:02:09: Since his lineage is given, that he's not going to descend Down out of heaven physically as an adult male
02:02:15: Instead he would be born in a normal way Just as verse 6 described, a child would be born to us Do you take that literally or spiritually?
02:02:22: Do you take that literally or metaphorically? Is that allegorical, born to us? What does the born to us represent?
02:02:28: How do we interpret the prophecies regarding his birth? Quite literally He was born to us
02:02:34: As a child As a son Unless you think that he's just ordinary in every way
02:02:40: And there's nothing extraordinary about this birth whatsoever Notice that verse 6 says The government will rest upon his shoulders Now what does that mean?
02:02:45: The government will rest upon his shoulders In what can Only be a conscious
02:02:51: And willful attempt to avoid the plain And straightforward language of that passage People have suggested
02:02:57: That that is speaking symbolically Or allegorically of the cross It was really popular
02:03:03: In the 2nd and 3rd and 4th centuries When allegorical interpretation was all the rage Big hip things, social media was all lit up With allegorical
02:03:11: Everywhere you turned And they would take these very plain prophecies And these very plain narratives And they would find in them all these symbols
02:03:17: And types and shadows and they would connect All of these obscure dots And what resulted was usually an obscure understanding
02:03:24: Of the passage And an obscuring of the plain meaning of the text And so in an attempt to avoid
02:03:30: That this would actually be speaking Of a literal physical earthly government That would rest upon his shoulders They instead said that this reference to the government
02:03:37: Being upon his shoulders was a reference To the cross, it was symbolic of the cross Which he bore on his shoulders
02:03:43: I'll give you an example Justin Martyr who lived in the early 2nd century Said this, quote
02:03:48: This signifies the power of the cross which at his Crucifixion he placed on his shoulders See the symbolism?
02:03:54: The government will rest upon his shoulders Jesus bore a cross on his shoulders Can't you see how those two come together? I mean it's obvious right?
02:04:01: It's not obvious at all is it? What gets even worse, Ambrose in the 4th century Said this, he bowed his shoulder to labor
02:04:07: Bowed himself to the cross to carry our sins For that reason the prophet says Whose government is on his shoulder
02:04:12: This means above the passion of his body Is the power of his divinity Or it refers to the cross that towers above his body
02:04:20: Says the government Rests upon his shoulders, it refers to the cross Towered above the shoulders Of his body
02:04:28: Caesarius of Arles At the turn of the 6th century said this Christ then had the government upon his shoulders When he carried the cross
02:04:35: Not unfittingly does Christ's cross Signify government Because by it the devil is conquered
02:04:40: And the whole world recalled to the knowledge and the grace of Christ Not unfittingly Does the word government
02:04:46: Refer to the cross because by the cross The devil is conquered Do governments conquer one another?
02:04:52: So since governments conquer one another And the devil was conquered by the cross The government Said Jim I've never heard an interpretation like that Well but you're in a community church
02:05:02: You're right you won't As long as I'm alive you won't Do you think that that's what
02:05:08: Isaiah meant? The government Will rest upon his shoulders that that must be referring to the cross Do you think any
02:05:13: Jew in Isaiah's day Scratch that Any Jew between Isaiah's day 700 B .C.
02:05:20: And 130 or the year 30 A .D. Do you think any Jew anywhere in there
02:05:25: Would have read Isaiah's prophecy here And in light of understanding God's promise to David in 2
02:05:31: Samuel 7 When the Lord said to David When your days are completed and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up a descendent after you
02:05:37: Who will come forth from you And I will establish his kingdom He shall build a house for my name I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever
02:05:45: Do you think that any Jew Read Isaiah 6 In light of 2 Samuel 7
02:05:50: The promise to David and thought to themselves The government must refer to A wooden beam physically placed
02:05:56: On the shoulders of the Messiah Or do you think that a Jew in Isaiah's day Would have heard this promise in chapter 9 verse 6
02:06:03: And thought I wonder if chapter 9 Verse 7 has anything to say About what the nature of that kingdom is
02:06:08: Sure enough there will be no end To the increase of his government or of peace And on the throne of David and over his kingdom
02:06:15: To establish it and uphold it with justice And righteousness from then on and forevermore Do you think they might have interpreted the word
02:06:20: Government in verse 6 In light of the rest of the sentence in verse 7 They might have done that And if they did that what conclusion would they come to Isaiah must be
02:06:31: Describing what A literal physical kingdom The only way
02:06:36: The only thing Isaiah could have been To suggest That government
02:06:41: Is symbolic of the cross Is to take an interpretation From outside of the text
02:06:48: And force it upon the text And make the text to mean that When the text in its most natural sense
02:06:55: Could never and would never Have meant that This son of David will rule And the government will rest upon his shoulders
02:07:02: And he will rule and reign Over the house of David Over the nation of Israel From a physical throne
02:07:09: In an earthly city Jerusalem And that kingdom will be established And it will have no end
02:07:16: It will go on forever and forever That's the promise That is a glorious And a beautiful promise
02:07:25: It's not allegorical It's not spiritual It's not a figurative rule It's not a rule from heaven
02:07:31: It's not a rule in the church through elders It's not a rule in the hearts of his people Not any of that It is exactly what
02:07:39: Isaiah described That we are still waiting for And expecting Describes the coming of this king
02:07:46: Notice now he describes the character of this king Look at his character He will be called in verse 6 His name will be called
02:07:51: Wonderful Counselor Some people divide that up and say it's Wonderful and Counselor It could be because the
02:08:00: Punctuation is not inspired in the text It could be Wonderful It could be Counselor Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace It could be four titles there
02:08:09: Or five titles Let's just take them each Wonderful just describes something that Causes intense amazement
02:08:15: Or a feeling of awe Or a feeling of wonder There's something about the nature of this son Which will be wonderful or awe and wonder inspiring
02:08:23: That is certainly true of him The more we get to know the Lord Jesus Christ And the more we see of him in scripture And the more we know of him in our lives
02:08:29: The more wonderful he becomes to us The more beautiful and glorious and magnificent is his person
02:08:35: Not because we make it so But because it is so And we become more enthralled with him As we are brought from one degree of glory to the next
02:08:41: In our understanding of who he is He is a person who is filled with wonder And he is a counselor So unlike every other king who would gather around him
02:08:48: A council of men who could give him wisdom And knowledge and understanding and advise him
02:08:53: This king will need no counselors Because he is the Wonderful Counselor He's the Perfect Counselor Because he is infinite in wisdom and infinite in knowledge
02:09:01: And infinite and perfect in his understanding He doesn't need to get advice from any counselor Or any council of wise men
02:09:07: Or a cabinet Or a group of advisors He doesn't need that Why? He's going to teach the
02:09:14: Lord He's going to say to him Here's what you need to do in this situation Here's the right course of action
02:09:19: Here's how you need to handle that He will not need that in his government He will not need any group of counselors Because he himself is the
02:09:25: Wonderful Wonder, awe inspiring counselor He is also El Gibor El Gibor which is translated
02:09:31: Mighty God His name is called here Mighty God This is a reference to the deity The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate son
02:09:37: Is a reference to his deity right here in the Old Testament He is God the son of one substance And one nature with the
02:09:43: Father In him dwells all the fullness of God in bodily form He is the exact representation of the
02:09:48: Father In every conceivable way He is perfect and one in unity One in nature with the
02:09:53: Father and with the Holy Spirit And so he is appropriately referred to As the Mighty God I think it is in that way
02:09:59: In terms of his deity that the next phrase Eternal Father should be understood It doesn't mean that he is to be confused with the
02:10:05: Father Because it is the son who becomes incarnate here Not the person of the Father But it describes one of two things
02:10:10: Either that this person who is going to be born to us Would be to his people like a father In terms of he would protect them and he would guard them
02:10:17: And he would keep them and provide for them Or it could be just a reference to the fact That he is the Father of Eternity Which most people take it to Be describing that That he is the one who holds time and eternity
02:10:28: His goings forth have been forever more Micah 5 .2 says This one who was born in Bethlehem Too small to be labeled among the tribes of Judah This one who would
02:10:38: Come into Bethlehem has also His goings forth have been from everlasting To everlasting. He is the
02:10:44: Eternal God So all of eternity is his. He is the progenitor Or the Father of Time He is the progenitor or the
02:10:49: Father of Eternity Everything flows out of him because he is the Mighty God And he is also the Prince of Peace What will his reign be like?
02:10:56: It will be a reign and a rule of peace Now he is the Prince of Peace in the sense that And we know him as the
02:11:01: Prince of Peace Because he has done something for us in terms of peace Has he not? The Gospel is a
02:11:07: Gospel of Peace It is called that in the New Testament Because the Gospel puts us at peace with one another So that men who are
02:11:12: Christians are not at war Against other men who are Christians of other nationalities Or nations or tribes or peoples
02:11:17: In the cross of Christ, because of the cross of Christ And in the kingdom of Christ There is peace between men Between whom there was once enmity
02:11:25: Paul describes this in Ephesians 2 and 3 He has brought peace by the cross And by the
02:11:30: Gospel of Peace He has also reconciled us to God making peace between us We who were his enemies God who was rightly offended by our sin
02:11:39: Against whom we were at war And now Christ because of what he has done Has brought peace between God and man
02:11:44: And Christ has brought peace between man and man It is also going to bring peace to this earth
02:11:51: Rules and reigns It would be perfect peace Recently we have had
02:11:58: Peace treaties inked And some normalization of relations between Israel And some of their neighbors in the
02:12:03: Middle East And that is a good thing People don't die People don't blow each other up And blow themselves up That is a good thing But listen, there is going to be no true or lasting peace
02:12:12: In the Middle East No matter who is president There is going to be no true or lasting or real peace
02:12:18: In the Middle East Until the Prince of Peace rules and reigns In the Middle East And then because of his rule and his reign
02:12:25: There will be absolute and perfect peace He will bring that peace when he returns And establishes his kingdom
02:12:32: Perfect rule Perfect No longer will nations wage war against other nations
02:12:38: They will beat their swords into plowshares They will lay down their armaments They will not go up to war against one another
02:12:45: You want to know what real peace looks like? When the heads of Arab nations
02:12:50: Heads of the Jewish nation Worship Yahweh Together In Jerusalem In the person of Christ That is true peace
02:13:01: When all around the world universally We all worship Yahweh in Jesus Christ That is true and perfect peace
02:13:10: Now I want you to notice that Isaiah gives us A description of the kingdom I can know and you can know with absolute
02:13:18: Certainty that when Isaiah says the government Will rest upon his shoulders that he is not describing The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ He is instead describing
02:13:26: The very thing that he clearly Lays out here in verse 7 There will be no end to the increase of his government
02:13:32: Or of peace. I want you to notice here the scope of his Kingdom The security of his kingdom and then the surety
02:13:38: Of his kingdom. Those are the three things we are going to notice The scope of his kingdom first There will be no end to the increase of his
02:13:43: Government or of peace This government which the Lord Jesus Christ will establish According to Revelation chapter 20
02:13:49: It will be a thousand year expression here on this earth At the end of that this earth will be Dissolved it will be burnt up he will recreate
02:13:55: A new heavens and a new earth but that kingdom which Begun on this earth and existed here for a thousand Years where the saints rule and reign with him
02:14:01: For that period of time that kingdom will go on Into the everlasting kingdom It will morph into the new heavens and the new
02:14:07: Earth in its expression there where it will Go on forever and ever just as the prophets Imagine a kingdom of the
02:14:12: Lord Jesus Christ Has not come to an end at the end of the Thousand years the thousand years is just The first phase of that that is expressed
02:14:19: Here in this world but then that kingdom will Go on for all of eternity into the new Heavens and the new earth so what does it mean that There will be no end to the increase of his
02:14:27: Government how does a perfect king in a perfect Kingdom ruling and reigning perfectly Over all of creation how does his kingdom
02:14:33: Continue to increase and his dominion In government continue to increase Forever more so that there is no
02:14:40: End to its increase how does it Continue to increase I think that the only way that this can be
02:14:45: Understood is that in the new heavens and The new earth and i'm not going to develop this at length because this Is a bit long but here it is in Here it is in a fortune cookie on the
02:14:53: New heavens and the new earth That kingdom that perfect rule and Reign will of course be over all
02:14:59: Things but the expanse Over which and the ways in which he Rules and reigns through his people
02:15:05: Though it is perfect it will continue To increase as the new heavens and the New earth and our dominion over it
02:15:11: As we exercise it continues to Grow forever and ever and Ever without end
02:15:17: The new heavens and the new earth will Expand and go on forever And ever without end and there will always
02:15:23: Be an increase to his government What makes it perfect so in one sense It will be over everything always
02:15:29: And another sense there will be never be An end to the increase of it The ways in which he ruled
02:15:35: Over which he ruled will continue To expand forever Why did the jews expect a
02:15:41: Messiah who would rule And reign And a kingdom over which he would rule and reign
02:15:47: Would continue to increase forever and ever Wasn't that what gabriel said to the angel Sorry gabriel was the angel wasn't that what gabriel
02:15:53: Said to mary Luke chapter 1 verse 32 and he says he Speaking of jesus will be great and will be called the son
02:15:59: Of the most high lord god will give him The throne of his father david he will Reign over the house of jacob forever his kingdom
02:16:04: And i would expect that after All the spiritual apostasy of the Nation of israel 700 years after Isaiah when the messiah finally came
02:16:13: To be born that if god had changed his Plan and there was no longer a plan for israel That that would have been the time for the angel to say look
02:16:20: Know what isaiah said But plans have changed Nation apostatized we're going
02:16:25: To tweak this just a little bit not Really going to be the throne of david it's not going to really be His kingdom it's not going to really be an earthly government
02:16:31: We're switching it all up it's all different Now so all that stuff in the old Testament allegorize it spiritualize it do
02:16:37: Whatever you want with it Angel didn't say that angel said The lord god will give him the throne of his
02:16:43: Father david and he will rule the house Of jacob forever and his kingdom Will have no end like a five
02:16:49: To promised a ruler who would come forth from bethlehem Second samuel 7 16 lord told
02:16:55: David your house and your kingdom will endure before me Forever your throne will be established forever Psalm 89 which describes that promise
02:17:01: That god made with david 89 says once for all i have sworn to my Holiness and i will not lie to david that his
02:17:07: Line will continue forever in his throne and do it Before me like the sun it will be established Forever like the moon faithful witness
02:17:13: In the sky Who could possibly rule over a kingdom that goes On forever what type of a king could could
02:17:19: Rule and reign without ever dying such a thing was A mystery until the king Comes and and gives his life
02:17:25: As a sacrifice for sin rises Again in an incorruptible body So that he can live forevermore because over Him death has no dominion now he can come
02:17:33: And take what the throne of his father David and he can rule over a kingdom forever Because death no longer has dominion over Him his suffering and death at his
02:17:41: First coming had to happen so that he could rise From the dead and occupy glorified Body so that he could take the throne of his
02:17:47: Father david and rule and reign forevermore The first coming was necessary the Suffering and the death and the resurrection
02:17:53: So that he could never die again And fulfill all the promises of the old testament Regarding the kingdom of david
02:17:59: There's a reason the jews were expecting A king in a kingdom because that's exactly what god Promised them he's right here in this passage i
02:18:04: Listen we could go on for all afternoon i could Read to you passages from the old testament that Describe this kingdom the coming kingdom
02:18:11: The nature of it the government of It the the people who inhabit it The type of things that will go on in the peace that it will
02:18:17: Bring the righteousness of it the justice of it The glory of it the prosperity of it You even have it here in isaiah chapter
02:18:24: Two and isaiah chapter 11 you see you See more of it later on in the book of Isaiah chapter 65 and 66
02:18:29: The elements of that kingdom described Let me give you just a couple of them psalm 2 And just i got a ton of them here but i'm running
02:18:36: Out of time psalm 2 i have installed my King upon zion my holy hill i will Proclaim the decree of the lord he said to me
02:18:41: You are my son today i have become your father Ask of me and i will make the nations your Inheritance the ends of the earth your possession
02:18:47: You will rule them with an iron scepter You will dash them to pieces like pottery Psalm 110 which is the most
02:18:54: Frequently quoted psalm In the new testament psalm 110 The lord said to my lord sit at my right
02:19:00: Hand until i make your enemies a footstool for your Feet the lord will extend your mighty scepter From zion you will rule in the midst of your
02:19:06: Enemies your troops will be willing on the day of battle Jeremiah 23 5 and 6 The days are coming declares the lord
02:19:11: When i will raise up to david a righteous branch A king who will reign wisely And do what is just and right in the land
02:19:18: Zechariah 9 9 Rejoice oh daughter of zion Shout daughter of jerusalem see your king
02:19:23: Comes to you righteous and having salvation Daniel 2 44 in the time of those kings The god of heaven will set up a kingdom
02:19:29: That will never be destroyed nor will it be left To another people it will crush all those kingdoms And bring them to an end
02:19:35: And it itself will endure forever Daniel 7 14 He has given authority glory and sovereign
02:19:42: Power all peoples and nations and men of Every language will worship him his Dominion is an everlasting
02:19:47: Union that will not pass away His kingdom is one which will never Be destroyed and you saw that theme in the book of Daniel when we went through it
02:19:55: And again you could turn over to isaiah 11 you could turn Over to isaiah chapter 2 you go to isaiah 65 And 66 the kingdom is described all
02:20:02: Over the old testament And some of those Promises were given to the nation of israel at their lowest
02:20:08: Points when their spiritual Apostasy was rampant And if those promises depended on the obedience
02:20:14: Of that covenant people at some Point god would have said no you've disobeyed The promises are no longer for you
02:20:19: But the lord never says that the lord Over and over again says the Promises don't depend upon your obedience
02:20:25: They depend on my grace and i will do this For my namesake zeal of the lord Of hosts will accomplish this
02:20:33: Second isaiah Describes the security of this kingdom will Establish it verse 7 he will establish
02:20:38: It he'll uphold it with justice And with righteousness from then on and forever More because this one who rules is mighty god
02:20:44: He rules and reigns in such a way that God would rule and reign How does god rule and reign god rules
02:20:49: And reigns with righteousness and justice Psalm 89 14 righteousness and justice Are the foundation of your throne
02:20:56: Psalm 8 97 verse 2 clouds and thick Darkness surround him righteousness and justice Are the foundation of his throne
02:21:01: Notice the reference to righteousness and Justice here in isaiah 9 verse 7 Because this one who is mighty god rules
02:21:08: And reigns in righteousness and justice Just as god himself would rule and Reign and third isaiah
02:21:13: Describes the surety of this kingdom or the certainty Of it and that is with that phrase the zeal Of the lord of hosts will accomplish this
02:21:19: Listen this would have been good news to the people Of isaiah's day because all that they could see when They looked out across their nation all that They could see was spiritual ruin
02:21:27: And political ruin Everything was horrible there's no Jew alive during isaiah's day
02:21:33: Who if they didn't have a revelation like this And the promise of god in their heart would have Ever thought that the davidic monarchy could
02:21:39: Ever rise again and that a king would take that Throne and rule and reign forever The nation could have never imagined that They would see that all of them would have said that's
02:21:47: Impossible that the throne Of david is a distant memory It's a shell of its former self
02:21:53: We have no power we have no Prosperity we have no ability to Conquer the nations our military is a
02:21:59: Joke our leadership is in shambles The whole nation is spiritually apostate None of them honor or worship
02:22:05: The god of israel None of them are keeping the covenant This whole place is a dog's breakfast
02:22:11: This whole land is a spiritual Train wreck that's what they would have said Here's the key
02:22:18: Establishment of this kingdom Is not of human doing What it means when it says the zeal of the lord of hosts
02:22:23: Will accomplish this We don't bring in The kingdom by the preaching of the gospel
02:22:30: We don't improve The world to the point where it's kingdom ready Or kingdom worthy Nor do we take this world to the preaching of the gospel
02:22:37: And make it the kingdom So that the king will come back It's not our job
02:22:43: That is not our work In daniel's vision in chapter 2 Do you remember the statue that he had with the gold
02:22:49: And the silver and the bronze Eventually the feet mixed with clay the iron legs and the feet Remember what happens at the end of that vision
02:22:56: Daniel says Nebuchadnezzar says he saw A rock stone Massive stone cut out of a mountain
02:23:02: Without hands It comes and crushes that statue Later on daniel describes
02:23:09: The same thing and he describes That kingdom that rock begins to fill the earth According to the vision that nebuchadnezzar had
02:23:14: Daniel interprets that and he says That rock that is cut out without hands The kingdom of the messiah it will come and destroy
02:23:20: All of his other nations Then it itself will fill this entire earth Twice in that passage it says that that stone
02:23:27: A symbol of the king Is cut out without hands Meaning it is not of our doing Not our accomplishment
02:23:34: It is not our obedience It is not our obedience that brings the kingdom in It is not our disobedience that thwarts the kingdom
02:23:41: It is not our preaching of the gospel That makes this world better for the sake of the kingdom We don't turn this wretched place
02:23:46: Into the kingdom by taking over industry And taking over culture and taking over All of these positions of power in our culture
02:23:52: And christianizing everything so that the king will return That is not the purpose of the gospel That is not the message of the gospel
02:23:58: That is not what we are doing It is the zeal of the lord of hosts
02:24:06: Will accomplish this I wonder how is this ever going to happen The lord is setting in place
02:24:14: A series of events Preplanned from eternity past Which series of events
02:24:19: The rise and fall of all the nations Will result in the coming and the establishment Not be by human doing
02:24:27: And if it is not going to be our human work That ushers it in And it is not going to be our disobedience
02:24:35: The lord himself This kingdom Massive stone
02:24:42: Cut out of another mountain Without hands Is going to come and it is going to crush
02:24:47: Destroy all of the nations This world Will judge his enemies
02:24:55: Everyone Will get judged Everyone Your sins will either be paid for In eternal hell
02:25:06: Or your sins have been paid for On the cross of the lord jesus But every sin
02:25:13: Is perfect You and I can be satisfied If you reject the christ
02:25:20: That is born in Bethlehem You will see nothing of the coming prince of peace That is my promise to you
02:25:27: Get nothing of the prince of peace You will not bow the knee To the meek and lowly savior Who died on the cross to save you from me
02:25:34: If you have never been born again You have no part in this kingdom But instead you will see the wrath of god for all of eternity Lying, your blasphemy, killing, your disobedience, your idolatry, your apostasy
02:25:43: Gossip, your slander Corrupt thoughts, your hateful thoughts Your adulterous heart All of it has heaped up a
02:25:51: Mountain of god's wrath That hangs over you Even this very day If you are not in the lord jesus
02:25:57: That is the bad news Good news Two thousand years to you Born on that day in the city of david
02:26:04: Christ the lord Savior Came to this world Dying on a cross to live a perfect life
02:26:12: He is the prophet, the priest King, savior
02:26:17: He came to give his life To ransom for many Pay the sin debt that you deserve What he demands of you is repentance and faith
02:26:25: That you will turn from your sin Knowledge, your sin debt Trust in the one that he sent to save you
02:26:30: If you will not bow to that king Today You will not see
02:26:36: That king Instead you will suffer His wrath So I say to you what psalm 2 says
02:26:43: Come and worship that king, bow down and do homage to him Face him on the day
02:26:51: Bless this day Born in the city of david Savior, Christ the lord
02:26:56: Let us not forget He saved us from our sins back then He is going to save us again
02:27:03: Eschatological sense Establishes He who was born a savior He will rule, he will reign
02:27:12: On david's throne For the lord god will give him the throne Father david He will rule over the house of jacob and over israel
02:27:19: Forever His kingdom There will be His glory
02:27:29: Father we do thank you for so merciful a salvation So full and so free An offer that you have made
02:27:35: To us that by jesus christ And what he has done Thousand years ago we can have our sins forgiven
02:27:41: And have eternal life and we can go peace With you Thank you that our hope is not in this world or in our
02:27:47: Ability to accomplish the salvation of this world Our hope is in jesus christ In him alone First advent for our
02:27:55: Salvation from sin Sent him to die for us And have our sins Thank you for so merciful
02:28:03: So free a salvation From the sin debt That was our greatest need And we thank you that we can look forward to that day
02:28:10: When we'll give to your son Throne of his father david Over the house of jacob he will rule forever
02:28:17: We look to that with great expectation And we pray that you would fix our hearts upon He who is both savior and king
02:28:24: In the name of christ our lord we pray Please stand
02:29:06: In my heart For me With the living
02:29:14: Word that should Set my people Free But with mocking
02:29:22: Storm and with crown Of thorn they bore Me to God Oh lord jesus
02:29:35: There is room in my Heart for me In chelsea
02:29:44: At thy coming To victory Oh say can
02:29:53: There is room There is room at my side For thee
02:29:59: My heart Shall rejoice for jesus When thou