The King in the Cradle

Isaiah 9:6 and the Promise of the Messiah

Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, this is our, one of our verses that we're memorizing right now. We'll move on to verse 7 in a couple of weeks. But I thought we had a fitting opportunity this evening as we prepare for Christmas day to consider what this text has to say.

And it's just like God to work through the seemingly impossible things to bring about the greatness of his glory, the fullness of his plan, little town of Bethlehem, a little baby. We'll see this evening, of course, that these things are much bigger than we allow for sometimes, or that we contemplate, or that we talk about.

A lot of things are said this time of year about Jesus. You hear always he's used as propaganda for immigration or whatever. See various displays of him that so often weaken, or at least dampen his glory.

Tonight, the sermon title, though, will set us in a different trajectory. It's simply this, the King in the Cradle. The King in the Cradle. And we'll examine tonight Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. Would you stand with me now?

Here's my exhortation. We're gonna say this together. If you need to, I'm gonna say it out of the ESV, but since we're memorizing it, if you need to, you can look down at your text, but if you don't have to, you could just recite it together.

No shame in needing to look at your text. That's okay. We'll say it together, though, from the ESV. Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Amen, let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this text, and I pray, O God, for your grace in preaching it tonight. Lord, fill us with awe and wonder. Lord, let us live as citizens of this great kingdom. And we pray, O God, for those here who do not know Christ, that even tonight they would repent and believe the gospel.

God, help us to be a faithful church and understand the truth given to us in the text and the great storyline of Scripture that you have. How kind you are to us, as Pastor Jacob has prayed already. How kind you've been.

Oh, your mercy to us. Thank you, God. Let us continue in that mercy, and may we not squander the mercy you've shown us.

And use it for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

Jesus Is Predicted in the Old Testament

Very simple, maybe even a simplistic, in a sense, outline. Number one, the first thing we see in this text, Jesus is predicted. Number one, Jesus is predicted. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.

Now, I know that there would be some in this room who would maybe wish to apply that text.

To Garrett, a little baby, to come.

But we can't apply that to any human person, can we? I've got no guarantee on when your children are going to be here. I have no guarantee on the birth of your children or the day that they're going to be here.

But I do have a guarantee on this text, and that is, this text speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. This was written over 700 years before the birth of Christ.

700 years.

Jesus is predicted. There are literally hundreds of prophecies we could go through in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. The God that would come, the promised one, every one of them perfectly fulfilled in the God-man Jesus Christ.

I'm just going to mention seven. We're not going to go through the text. You can write these down. Maybe you can discuss them in family worship. You can discuss them Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. But I'll just mention seven.

Here are seven predictions about Jesus that he has perfectly fulfilled. One, Jesus would be the offspring of Abraham. Genesis 12 .3 tells us this. You can look that up later. But that the child that would come from Abraham, all the families of the earth would be blessed in this offspring.

This is fulfilled.

Number two, Jesus would be born of a virgin. In fact, I'm right here, so I'll just flip over Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.

But that's not the first promise. That's all the way back in Genesis 3 .15 when God says it'll be the seed of the woman that will come. We see this is perfectly fulfilled. By the way, I'll just mention this.

Not going to get bogged down in this. But every year you have discussions about, well, is the virgin birth important? Yes, there's no gospel without it. Yes, the virgin birth is important.

Amen, absolutely. So we don't argue that.

We accept the scripture's testimony and the fulfillment of the Lord Jesus. Number three, Jesus will be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5 .2 tells us this.

It's fulfilled.

We see in Luke 2. Number four, Jesus will come from the tribe of Judah. That is prophesied in many places. In example, numbers 24 .7, I think. Genesis 49 .10, Jesus fulfills that. Number five, Jesus will come from the line of David.

That's here in our text. Let me read verse seven. Of the increase of His government, of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

From the line of David. Number six, Jesus would be divine. You need to understand that in the Old Testament, and I know a lot of people may have trouble with this, but in the Old Testament, there is clear prediction that Jesus is not just gonna be an ordinary person, but He's going to be God, God in the flesh.

Not that He became God, He is eternally God, but that this God took on human flesh, two natures in one person. Well, how could I say that? Well, it's right here in our text. This is one of the classic texts.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government should be up on His shoulder and His name should be called Wonderful Counselor,.

Mighty God.

We'll talk about that more in a minute. Seventhly, Jesus would be born as the last Adam. Now, this is not really a prediction per se, but let me just mention some theology in the Old Testament. Hosea 6, 7.

Hosea 6, 7 says, "'But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. "'There they dealt faithlessly with me.'". It's not a direct prophecy, but it does capture the Old Testament is missing somebody to step into the place of Adam and be a better representative for God's people, to fulfill the law, to live a perfect life.

This is going to be fulfilled in Jesus. He is the true and better Adam. And then Isaiah 53 predicts that He will die as a sin-bearing substitute, that He will take our sins in His body on the tree. He will die.

He will rise again from the dead. And then as we talked about this morning, He will rule and reign forever. So again, it was funny because I was looking at some old notes and I realized I kind of say that same too.

Christmas is not about the manger, it's about the cross. But I said this morning, let's correct that.

Let's push that further.

It's not just about the manger, it's about the cross, but not just about the cross, it's about the resurrection, but not just about the resurrection, it's about the ascension, ultimately terminating in a throne.

Jesus Christ is King.

That's here in our text.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Jesus is predicted.

That's a simple point, isn't it? You can understand that. Children, even you can understand that point. That's a very simple point, isn't it? Jesus is predicted. What does it mean to predict something?

It means to tell it beforehand. If Haddon was to look at me and say, dad, tomorrow I'm going to kill 15 ducks, which that's illegal, I think, actually, I think the limit, but anyway, he may or may not be able to come make that come about.

Probably not. I know he's got some brothers that would like to see that happen. But here's the reality of why Jesus was predicted.

You listening?

Jesus is predicted because God didn't just know it was going to happen, but God planned it perfectly from eternity past. Jesus is predicted 700 plus years before He arrives. Isaiah perfectly, and all these other scriptures we've looked at, perfectly predict what Jesus would do.

I wonder what a glorious thought we would have about Christmas if we would continue to see it in this light. Tonight, I ask us, are we trusting this man? Do you recognize and rejoice in his kingship? Further, I might mention this to the church.

The scriptures are totally true and trustworthy, but the scriptures should not be treated like a book in a museum, like you walk by in a museum and you see the book, you're like, wow, now listen to this.

Let me tell you about that book. That book there will tell you all these truths. That book there will tell you about eternal life. That book there perfectly predicted what Jesus, what would happen with the Lord Jesus.

Wow, isn't that amazing? And then you go on back to Taco Bell and you grab your burrito and like, nothing's different. No, that's not the Bible. Like if all this is true that we've talked about, it perfectly predicted the Messiah should not be, should this not be the book that we rest in and trust in and read.

This book gives us the future. It tells us of our past, tells us of our future, tells us how we ought to live in the present. This is the true book and we ought to adhere to it. Okay, I'll talk about that more next Sunday night, the last Sunday of the year.

Let's move secondly. It's a simple outline.

Jesus is predicted.

Number two, children, you can get this one too. Jesus is a present, right? Number one, Jesus is predicted. Number two, Jesus is a present.

Now what, what does that mean?

A present?

It's a gift. What does the text say?

The text says, for to us, a child is born, to us, a son is given. Who's the us?

Look at verse two.

Verse two of chapter nine. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. And then I think we're helped by reading John chapter one.

So I'm just gonna read John one, nine through 13. You can read that later. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own. His own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus is a gift.

To who?

The light of life is for the nations. All those, not just the Jews, right? All those who will look upon the son being born, John says, not of flesh, not of man's will, but of God. So an important question here would be, are you looking to the son?

Jesus is a present, but listen, he's not good news for you and he will never be good news for you if you don't lay hold of him by faith. Again, I say this to the adults, but also to the kids, listen to this, right?

Don't get lost in the lights. Don't get lost in the physical things you're gonna receive from your parents. Don't get lost, adults, in the sentimentality of Christmas and fail to apprehend Jesus by faith.

The Christ of God is not laying in a manger. He is ruling and he is reigning and what you must do is trust him. Trust him by faith. Do you see the glorious grace of God in our text?

We live in a dark world.

We've lived in a dark world for as long since the fall. Sickness and sorrow and sin and shame and war. Our own nation talking about difficult relations right now with Venezuela. We deal with terrorist attacks.

We live in a dark, cold world, a world that's rejected God, a world that's taken its fist and shaken it in God's face and said, no, we're gonna do our own thing. And even some of you here, at least, well, no, not some of you, all of you, myself included, at some point in our life, we shook our fist at God and we said, no, no, God, we want to be our own gods.

And yet, what has God done in this? He's given us his son to rectify the situation. To us, a child is born, to us, a son is given. Christmas reminds us that God is willing to undo all the evil and wickedness that we've done in his son.

A son is given.

Here's the gift of God's amazing grace to a dark and undeserving world. And this light pierces the darkness. Look at verse three, it's spoken of in past tense. You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy.

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. This is spoken of in the past tense because it's an ironclad promise. The nation will be multiplied, no longer being primarily Jewish, but comprised from among all nations into one new nation, 1 Peter 2 says, the one body of Christ, the church.

How will this happen? This happens because of Jesus. Right, remember, so remember all the promises here in verse two, the people who walked in darkness, seen a great light. Verse three, you've multiplied the nation.

How can all this happen? Verse six, it says for, you could translate it because, because, how is all this gonna happen? Because of the gift that God has given in Christ. For to us, a child is born, and to us, a son is given the blessings of Christ himself.

I want you to, I want you to consider something.

Before moving on.

There are other places of scripture that talk about salvation being a gift. There are other places in scripture that talk about eternal life, all that. So I'm not minimizing those things, but I just want you to notice for a second the emphasis in verse six, okay?

To us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. The emphasis is this, okay? The emphasis is not the blessings. The emphasis here in this verse is the person.

Do you understand?

That is the greatest gift that we are given at Christmas or any other time in the history of mankind is Jesus Christ himself. Our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. But the greatest gift is not the forgiveness of sins.

The greatest gift is Christ himself. Forgiveness of sins is a means to the greatest gift. Because of what Christ has done, we are able to be cleansed from our sins, and we are able to be united to the treasure.

Christ is the treasure.

Right, you've heard me say this. It's not my own invention. We don't come to Jesus to get treasure. We come to Jesus and we get him as the treasure.

Does it make sense?

Yeah, you get treasure coming to Jesus. He is it. Sometimes we talk about this. And I understand what people mean, so I wanna be careful. But we say things like, well, did you have a good Christmas? Okay, I know what we mean by that.

But can I just tell you this, Christian? You can't have a bad Christmas.

Why?

Because we've been given the greatest treasure in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I don't want to minimize the pain and sorrow of this time of year. Because for some, and I think about, I'll go ahead and say her name.

I'm not even sure if she's watching this tonight or not, but I know it's real and we've talked about it. It's open.

It's a real issue.

We talked about Miss Toni. I know she's not the only one, but it's the most recent for her. This time of year is real. The pain is real. The sorrow is real. Some of you have sorrow and pain and sadness.

You're not making, you wish, you wanna be more generous. You don't have a lot of money this year. You're missing a loved one. You look around the table, and sometimes I still look around the table and I think, well, I should see maybe this person's face.

And maybe you think that.

And it's hard.

So I'm not glossing over it. I'm not just saying, well, just smile and put a happy face. No, no, but I am saying this. I'm giving you the hope of Christ. You've been given the greatest gift. The greatest gift is not your wealth and it's not your family.

The greatest gift is Christ. And I'm saying, look to Him. Dear Christian, you're struggling this time of year. Look to Him. You're not alone. You're not abandoned. And if you read Romans 8, you understand.

If God has given you the greatest gift in Christ, then won't He also rightly take care of our lesser needs?

Yes, He will. There is hope.

Cling to Christ, but also note this. Christ is the treasure, but when your hands are too weak to cling to the treasure of Christ, your treasure clings to you. The church is the apple of Christ's eye.

He sees you.

He knows you. He has walked in the flesh and He knows our trials and you rest in this King. Okay, I'm not gonna have a problem talking about Santa Claus from the pulpit in this church. I understand that.

But you understand one of the issues that we have with Santa Claus is he becomes a replacement for Jesus with some people. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. And then you're like, yeah, but that doesn't even actually materialize into anything for us, right?

It's because it's fictitious. And so then you are tempted maybe at times to look at Jesus that way. Well, He's just off in the sky somewhere and He sees me when I'm sleeping and He knows when I'm awake and I don't really know how that benefits me, but no, in your pain and your loss and your sorrow, if you are in Christ, He is with you.

He's not distant.

He entered into our time and our flesh and He identifies with our griefs and our burdens and our sorrows yet without sin.

So you can trust Him.

Jesus Deserves Praise as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace

Okay, thirdly, and this one probably take the most time. Jesus is predicted, Jesus is a present. It's a simple outline. Thirdly, Jesus deserves praise. Look at this glorious Messiah. You can't put this in a drawing or a trinket for just a child is born, just a son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulder.

Now, I'm not trying to make too much of this and I haven't really verified the Hebrew with this, with the word shoulder, but I do think that's interesting, isn't it? I wanna say, I want to say in the memorization, I want to say the government will be upon His what?

Shoulders, because that makes sense to me, right? The text says shoulder. Wow, He's so strong,.

He only needs one shoulder for the government, right?

The government shall be upon His shoulder and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Now, at this point in Judah's history,.

They are enduring King Ahaz, he's a wicked king and some of the mistakes, excuse me, the mistakes and decisions he's made, they've affected the whole nation. But Isaiah is promising here that one day a king is going to come and he will have an everlasting kingdom and he is going to be a good king.

This king, of course, is Jesus who left His throne as it were to come rescue His people. And then He's established His kingdom and we see it in part right now. The government is on His shoulder, first of all, because He's put our sins on His shoulder to carry them, to pay for them, to bear them.

Died for us, rose again and now the kingdom has broken in. We've seen that in Acts, sins are being forgiven, lives are being changed. This is the good news of the gospel. The gospel comes in and it is what changes hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, okay?

So think about politically, economically, we should be for good laws, we should be for good politics, all these things are important, but just note this, new laws, political campaigns, more education, more money in your pocket from the government, none of those things ultimately, none of those things at all are gonna change a heart.

It's only the gospel. And through the gospel, Jesus expands His kingdom. The government, the text says, shall be upon His shoulder. The government that He maintains, the kingdom that He rules, ultimately is His church.

Our Lord Jesus reigns on the promised throne of David until one day, the Bible says, all of His enemies will be made His footstool when He returns for His bride. Now, Isaiah transitions here and he moves from the government shall be upon His shoulder to these names, says His name.

That's interesting, isn't it? His name, singular, and then you have all these plural, you have a list of names. Like, we would think that you should say it, some of His names will be, but no, no, His name.

And I think the reason is because all of these are various attributes, as it were, that characterize who Jesus really is. Today, we have some weird names. I'll tell you what I did in my office this afternoon.

Here's the great research I did on this little point. I Googled weird millennial names. Now, some of us will be offended, but here's what came up. River, Willow, Luna, Phoenix, Aspen, Brooklyn, London, Dakota, Sydney, Jackson, Braden, Kaylee, Kaitlyn, Brynn, Blaze, Maverick, Riker, Scarlet.

I don't know how you say that one. K-A-I-R-O. Cairo, maybe? Like the syrup? Or like Egypt? Okay. Now, I'm not saying that if you've named your child those things, and one of those you noticed.

Was our child's name.

I'm not saying you made those child's name.

That you're weird.

I mean, you might be weird, but you're not weird because of that, per se. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I just wanna make a point here. These four names that we're looking at for the rest of the sermon, they carry much more weight than any of the other names.

I just mentioned, okay?

So let's consider that for just a minute. His name shall be called. What? What will his name called? Number one, you see here, Wonderful Counselor. Wonderful? Who is the child that is coming? Who is this King Jesus?

What is Christmas about? Forget the sentimentality for just a moment and consider what the Bible says. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Wonderful Counselor. Think about the infinite riches of the manifold wisdom of Christ.

Not just a counselor. Look, you've had counselors, right? You had counselors in high school. Maybe they were good counselors.

They weren't wonderful counselors.

They did not demand your worship. And if they did, they were bad counselors, right? You had counselor in high school, maybe college, maybe other times in your life. You've gone to a counselor for some advice, whatever the case may be.

Sometimes we consider in the legal profession, we have a counselor as a lawyer. Maybe you've gone to a lawyer. Maybe you've got good advice. Maybe you've got bad advice. But all of those things are a wash.

All of those things are nothing compared to Jesus Christ. He is Wonderful Counselor.

Worship Him.

He's not just, you're not just supposed to feel good about Jesus around Christmas time. You're supposed to worship Him because He is Wonderful Counselor. Psalm 119 .24 says, your testimonies are my delight.

They are my counselors. Wow. God's Word is a counsel to His people because Christ is the author of it. And He is the counselor. He is the Wonderful Counselor. He is the author, producer, director, main character of the Bible.

Here's Jesus, Son of God, truly God, truly man, conquering the grave, crushing the serpent, paying for sin, winning righteousness.

He rules and He reigns.

Think about this Jesus for just a moment. He sets up kings and He tears them down. The angels fall down before Him. He holds the galaxies, as it were, in the palm of His hand. The whole universe, and you can't even imagine the universe.

When I say universe, you just think of this large, expanded, but really your little peanut brain and mind, we can't fathom the depth and the bigness of the universe. And yet the Bible says that our Lord Jesus Christ holds together all things by the Word of His power.

This is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And yet this God gives counsel. He gives counsel to you. Do you want to hear it? Yeah, I would. Yes, yes, I want to hear that.

Why?

Because He's God.

So what is His counsel? King Jesus counsels things like this.

Come to me, come to me,.

All who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Now, it's going to be a silly illustration, but I think it'll go over with the kids. So just listen. Imagine you're in the woods, okay? You there? You in the woods in your mind, you there? Okay, you're in the woods in your mind.

Joe, you can do this with me. You're in the woods and you see a huge bear. You're in the woods and there's a huge bear. And what are you going to do? Because the bear is fearsome.

He's scary.

He's got large teeth. He's got large claws.

He stands up and he's bigger than your dad.

You can put your dad on top of each other and the bear's still bigger than that. And he's fearsome and he's angry and he's standing about 20 feet from you and there's nothing you can do. What are you going to do?

You're going to run away from him? He'll catch you in a second.

He'll eat you with one bite.

Now this is an illustration so we can do stuff like this. We know bears don't really talk, but this bear talks to you.

You ready?

And you know what he says? Come here and I'll protect you.

I'll protect you.

I'm not going to eat you.

I could maul you. I could destroy you, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to protect you. Now it's a silly analogy I get. It's a silly story. For legal purposes, let me say this. Don't try to talk to bears.

But let me say this. Listen to me for just a second, children.

Did you know that,.

And sometimes he's not presented this way, did you know, Josiah, that God is actually scarier than a bear? Did you know that?

We don't treat God that way,.

But he really is scarier than a bear because he's the King of kings and Lord of lords.

He rules the galaxies.

He speaks and nations are destroyed. Galaxies are formed. The rivers and the rocks and the hills and the canyons. And the reason he's scarier than a bear is because of our sin. You've lied to your parents.

You've done things you shouldn't have done. And God has every right to destroy you. And it would be worse than facing a bear in the woods.

And yet this God,.

Here's the counsel he gives to you.

Come to me. Come to me.

I won't destroy you. I won't maul you.

I won't rip you to shreds.

I'll save you. I'll forgive your sins.

I'll comfort you if you just trust me. That's what he says. That's his counsel from his word. Trust Christ and you'll be saved. He's a wonderful counselor. There's more things I wanted to say about the Bible.

I'll mention that more next week, Christian. But can I just say it this way? Christian, if he's such a wonderful counselor, why would we not search his book for his counsel? You make too many decisions, don't you?

And I do too. You're not searching the counsel of the scriptures. But I'll talk about that more next week.

We got to move on.

Secondly, mighty God. Wonderful counselor, mighty God. Now this is clear and unequivocal. This is not ambiguous at all. You don't have to have a seminary education to understand this text.

Who is Jesus?

He's God.

Yeah, but no, it's pretty plain and simple, right? I saw one of my friends on social media said, I'm just a hillbilly with a Bible. I like that. I'm just a redneck with a Bible. Keep it simple, folks.

He is mighty God.

He is God.

God in the flesh. There are people who would try to take this prophecy and say, you know, this prophecy, it's really about Hezekiah, but it falls apart right here. Maybe in some of this, you can say, well, that may be, maybe, but right here, it all falls apart.

Why?

He's not Hezekiah, because Hezekiah ain't God.

He's mighty God.

God himself stepped down to this broken, fallen, sinful mess to redeem those in rebellion against him. He didn't send someone else. He didn't send an angel. He didn't send a lesser being. God himself came to us.

Mighty God. Thirdly, the text says, He's wonderful counselor. His name shall be called.

So we must take all these together.

Wonderful counselor.

Mighty God.

Everlasting Father. Now, that's interesting. We need to understand some things about this, because it doesn't mean that He is the Father. Jesus is not God the Father. Jesus is God the Son. It doesn't mean the Father came to us.

That's not what it means. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons within the Godhead. One God, equal in essence, different, distinct, I should say, in their roles.

So what does this mean?

So this is not the Father. Jesus is not the Father. What does it mean, though? He'll be called Everlasting Father. Well, I have two angles to consider. I actually think they're both right. But even if Isaiah is only meaning to communicate one of them, they both have the same endpoint.

So let me explain. First, there's the thought that in the Hebrew, it really reads more like, or could be translated more like, Father of Eternity, okay? Father of Eternity. Okay, what would that mean?

Alluding here to the author of eternal life. The other thought is that the term Father has a connotation in the ancient Near East of covenantal responsibility. A patriarchal society, right? So he is the father, in one sense, of the new covenant.

The covenant of grace. He is the mediator of that covenant. He is the head of the church. He is the son of Abraham, and yet he is the greater Abraham. Remember what Abraham's name means? The father of a multitude.

Our Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of that and even greater. He is the fulfillment of the creation mandate, as it were. It is his offspring that are spreading over the face of the whole earth by the gospel.