Mighty

[00:00:02] Our God in heaven. [00:00:05] We come to you because we need to be instructed from your word in especially in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:00:23] O Lord our God. We know that all of the saving power and grace that you would give us comes in and through Jesus. [00:00:36] And so we desire that you would teach us what we need, which is to see and to know more of him, to know his glory, to know his mercy, to know his love and kindness, to know his power. [00:00:54] Teach us so that by the power of youf Spirit, our hearts might be bent towards him, leaning towards him continually, so that in all of the discouragements and trials and temptations that we face, our bent might be to lean towards him and lay hold of him by faith. [00:01:17] Help us and bless us, we ask, in his name. Amen. [00:01:24] Scripture reading is From Isaiah, chapter 9. We'll read verses 6 and 7. Isaiah 9, 6, 7. Hear God's word. [00:01:33] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. [00:01:39] And the government will be upon his shoulder. [00:01:43] And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [00:01:55] Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice. [00:02:08] From that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. [00:02:16] Please be seated. [00:02:28] Think about your life, just kind of ordinary rhythms of life. Going to work, going to school, taking care of your kids, maybe making preparations for fun times with your family over the next couple of weeks. [00:02:42] And in the ordinary course of life, what does power look like to you? [00:02:51] I don't mean the power company. Power, energy coming down the power lines that powers the various things in your house, though. Maybe that's helpful. [00:03:01] There's a kind of power there, too, a kind of natural power and electricity. [00:03:06] What do you think of when you think of power? [00:03:12] Do you think of people? People who have power? [00:03:18] Maybe a kind of power in your company? [00:03:21] People who are the leaders who make decisions, and whatever decisions they make, you have to follow along and support those and go along with them. [00:03:31] If you think of power in the society more broadly, the government has all kinds of power, right? There's a power to make laws, there's a power to enforce those laws. That's the guys that walk around with badges and guns on their hips. The police, right? They have the power to enforce laws. [00:03:48] There's military power. We're pretty proud of that. Here in America, we have a big military. [00:03:54] It makes it so that we can have peace and safety Nobody comes and attacks us, right? There's power there. And that power also allows us to go and have another exercise, a different kind of power, economic power, money can be power, right? [00:04:07] There's all kinds of power. There's other power too. There's a power that maybe you don't think of it as power, but it's a remarkable kind of power. Have you ever thought of someone in your life who you really looked up to? [00:04:24] Maybe you had a teacher in high school or college that was a really good teacher. You really respected this person. [00:04:32] He has a kind. He or she had a kind of power over you in a good way to instruct you, to teach you. And if he said something, you would be likely to accept it and want to go home and try to live that out, follow those instructions. There's all kinds of power. [00:04:51] What does power and might look like in our verse? This evening, as we Continue Looking at Isaiah 9, 6, we encounter real power, real might. We're told that this baby that's going to be born, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given. This morning we looked at the birth of the Immanuel child, Jesus. Jesus being born and laid in a manger. [00:05:22] This verse tells us that that little infant wrapped in swaddling cloths, dependent on mom and dad, that little baby is mighty God, the greatest power, period. [00:05:39] Greater than any power that you can think of, that that child is mighty. [00:05:45] We want to look at mighty God and his power this evening. First, we'll look at mighty God, simply what does that mean, that title mean? Secondly, we'll look at the mighty Victor. This child is not only mighty God, but he's using this power to do something. He's a mighty victor. And thirdly, we'll look at how he is a mighty conqueror. So mighty God, mighty victor, mighty conqueror, real power in the form of a child. [00:06:18] Now the child is man. [00:06:20] We consider that with Pastor Chelpka this morning at some length, that he's just born of the line of David, the promised king, who would be born, who would bring salvation and set up an eternal kingdom. And you see that here in our verse, the government is going to be on his shoulders. He's going to. He himself will be the government. And that's what you have in a monarchy, the king is the government. [00:06:46] And then verse seven tells us that in particular that he's going to be the child of David that was promised in 2nd Samuel 7. So he's going to be a man, a person with a human nature, descended from David he's going to be a child or a son, but here we learn that he's going to be mighty God. Let's look at those two words and how they fit together. [00:07:14] Mighty God. The word for mighty here isn't just the word for power generally, but if you go through the Old Testament, it's the word that's used to describe soldiers who are powerful, mighty warriors. [00:07:33] If you think of King Saul or King David, who we've been learning about over the last year, in first and Second Samuel, they were mighty warriors. And as they went out and fought battles on behalf of God's people, to defeat their enemies, to protect and defend God's people, they were mighty. [00:07:54] This child will be mighty, but not just mighty. He's mighty God. [00:08:01] That immediately tells us that he's not just going to be a really, really powerful king, he's something more. [00:08:07] He's not just a king who's a great warrior like David. [00:08:11] He's a king who himself is God. [00:08:15] Now people debate this. How could this child be God? It's not possible that God, through Isaiah back then would have been saying that the child would be both God and man in is it? [00:08:29] Well, if you look at the next chapter, God applies the very same title to himself very clearly. Mighty God, he says of himself. [00:08:41] So the context demands that when he says that the child is mighty God, he's saying he truly is God. He's both God and man. Look at Isaiah 10:21. [00:08:54] The remnant will return the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. [00:09:00] In other words, to Jehovah, the God of Israel. They're going to return to their God, who is mighty God. So that when he says that the child will be mighty God, he's telling us he's God, both God and man. [00:09:19] How do these two words come together then? He's mighty warrior and he is God as they come together. [00:09:27] This is a title for God, as you might say, God as the King of heaven. [00:09:34] God as the kingdom of heaven, is the captain of the armies of Heaven. [00:09:41] God himself is the leader of the angel armies. Another title that's similar that he uses is, we heard about it this morning, Jehovah Sabaoth, or the Lord of the hosts of the armies of heaven. [00:09:59] You see, this used very clearly in Isaiah 42, verse 13, that God is a mighty warrior who arises to defend his people as their king, leading his armies into battle. Isaiah 42:13. The Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war. He stirs up his zeal. He cries out, he shouts aloud he shows himself mighty against his foes. [00:10:31] So the child will not only be man, descendant of David, God, but especially he will be God who comes as a warrior to defend his people, to fight, to go into battle and to defeat the enemy. [00:10:51] And having defeated the enemy, to win, to be the victor, to conquer. [00:11:03] What enemies do you face? [00:11:07] What is real power? [00:11:09] Maybe this is a more realistic question, not so esoteric, not philosophical. What enemies do you face? [00:11:19] All of us have enemies. [00:11:23] When you look at your enemy, who is he? [00:11:27] What form, what shape does he take? [00:11:30] And as you consider him, and I'm sure you do, how powerful is he? [00:11:41] Ahaz, Back to our story with this prophecy fits into Ahaz and the people of Jerusalem were surrounded by powerful armies. Two of them, one from Damascus in Syria, and the other from Samaria, the northern kingdom, Israel. And they had come down and surrounded Jerusalem. [00:12:04] And they were trapped. As Ahaz looked at his enemies, what did he do? [00:12:11] His heart shook like a tree in the wind. He was shaking like a leaf. [00:12:17] God brought his word to him through the prophet and said, I'm your God. I will save you. I will be Emmanuel with you. [00:12:28] And he doubted. [00:12:31] Thirty years later, Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem were again trapped in Jerusalem, again surrounded, this time by the Assyrian army, one of the largest armies we read about in the whole of the Bible. [00:12:50] 185,000 soldiers fielded against Jerusalem. [00:12:59] God sent his word again to the king, Hezekiah, through the prophet. [00:13:04] And Hezekiah believed that the God who promised to be with his people would save and deliver his people. [00:13:12] And that night God sent his angel and he destroyed 185,000 soldiers. [00:13:19] Like that, does your enemy appear powerful to you? [00:13:26] You have the mighty God, the warrior who fights on behalf of his people on your side. [00:13:33] God has sent his own son as a child. [00:13:37] But is the mighty God to save sinners? [00:13:41] Let's look secondly at the mighty victor. He's mighty God. [00:13:46] He comes to accomplish a victory. You see this in our chapter here at the beginning of chapter nine, especially in verses three through five, the salvation that the child is going to bring is going to be like a military victory. [00:14:05] Verse four tells us it's going to be like God's victory over Pharaoh in the Exodus, like Gideon's. God's victory through Gideon over the Midianites. Against overwhelming odds, God came and saved his people and destroyed the enemies. [00:14:21] The result you find in verse five, it's like a battlefield where all the warriors have been slain and they're stripping their uniforms and their armor off and piling it up into big piles and lighting them on fire. [00:14:35] The battle is won. [00:14:37] And now we're destroying the implements of war. [00:14:41] It's a victory, a military victory. Verse 3. God's people, then come and rejoice in the spoils of war that the mighty God, this child, has won for them. [00:14:54] Clearly the child is a mighty victor. [00:14:58] But victory over whom? [00:15:03] Who is the enemy? [00:15:06] What or who is the enemy that this child, the mighty God, will face in battle? [00:15:14] Who is the Goliath that the child will defeat? [00:15:21] Go back to the real reason for distress, the real reason why these armies are surrounding Jerusalem and Ahaz is shaking like a leaf. [00:15:33] The real reason. The armies poured forth from the north to rape, pillage and plunder Judah and to lay siege to Jerusalem, the holy city. [00:15:42] The real reason, the real enemy is the very same reason that you face trouble, distress and problems in your life. [00:15:56] The same root cause, the same root problem, the same root enemy. [00:16:04] It's the same reason that the armies of the Prince of Darkness come at you, to tempt you, to torment you with doubts over your sin, to seek to drag you down into darkness. [00:16:20] The same root problem, your problem, Israel's problem. [00:16:27] God allowed the armies to come because of Israel's sins. [00:16:34] The only way the devil has any sway over any person is because he's a sinner. [00:16:46] We read how God describes this problem in Isaiah 52. [00:16:51] Sorry, Isaiah 59. [00:16:54] Your iniquities have separated you from your gods. Your sins have hidden his face from you. Why are armies allowed to pour in because of Israel's sin? [00:17:07] Why do we have trouble because of our sin? Verse 12. [00:17:13] For our transgressions are multiplied before you. Our sins testify of against us. [00:17:19] For our transgressions are with us. And as for our iniquities, we know them in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Israel's real enemy, your real enemy is within. [00:17:44] It's your sin, and that's the enemy that the mighty God came in the person of the Child, to fight with, to overcome, to defeat, to be victorious over. [00:18:02] God claims over and over again in the book of Isaiah that He alone is the Savior of his people. [00:18:11] We read it in chapter 59. He looked and he saw the sins of his people, and he saw that there was no one to save. [00:18:19] No man could come and deliver his people from their sins. [00:18:25] He says, I alone am your savior. [00:18:30] God looked and he saw you. [00:18:35] He saw you in the Worst of your sins. [00:18:38] He saw you and he had compassion on you. [00:18:42] He saw you and he said, I must get up and go and fight to deliver. [00:18:50] The Lord saw it. [00:18:52] He saw there was no man and wondered. There was no intercessor. Therefore, his own arm brought salvation for him. [00:19:01] His own righteousness, it sustained him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and helmet of salvation on his head. [00:19:12] God, the mighty one, the child, the mighty warrior. [00:19:17] He arose. [00:19:19] He put on armor to go and fight for sinners. [00:19:24] How did he do it? [00:19:27] He arose and he entered the womb of the Virgin Mary. [00:19:32] He arose and he put on our flesh and blood. [00:19:38] The mighty God became a child. [00:19:42] And he fought from infancy, throughout his childhood and all the way into adulthood, all the way to the cross every day. Jesus, mighty God, the warrior, fought to save you, his people. [00:20:01] He fought with a breastplate of righteousness. [00:20:06] He supplied righteousness. [00:20:10] He fought as a man. [00:20:13] He fought to obey. [00:20:18] Because we disobeyed. [00:20:20] He fought and overcame. He faced temptation in every single way that you and I do. And he never once failed. He remained righteous, perfectly righteous, wearing that breastplate of righteousness. [00:20:40] And he fought in obedience. [00:20:43] By suffering, we had earned punishment for our sins. [00:20:49] It's very clear that's what the armies are pressing in on Jerusalem. Punishment for sins. [00:20:56] And God sent them. [00:20:59] And God knew, mighty God knew that you and I needed to suffer for sins. And so he sent his son, born of a virgin, to take our human nature, flesh and blood, so that he, being a perfect sacrifice, could go and. And suffer and die for sinners on the cross again. Isaiah. [00:21:21] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. [00:21:31] But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. [00:21:37] The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. [00:21:46] He came as God, took on human flesh as a child. [00:21:52] And he fought as a man. [00:21:54] And he fought as God, as the God, man, as man. He could suffer and die and obey as mighty God. He fought bearing wrath. [00:22:05] The human nature cannot withstand the wrath of Almighty God. [00:22:10] It would be destroyed. But because he was the God man, he could bear the wrath of God and its curse against sinners. [00:22:22] And he fought that he might provide a perfect, infinite righteousness, a merit sufficient to save any sinner that would turn to him for salvation. [00:22:37] Jesus Christ is the mighty victor. He won. [00:22:42] He defeated sin in the flesh. On the cross. [00:22:47] He defeated the devil, not just in the temptation in the wilderness. But as he died on the cross, he broke the power that the devil had over sinners by taking our sin away from us. [00:23:01] And by dying and rising, he defeated death itself. [00:23:07] Jesus is the mighty victor that he might win. [00:23:13] He did the last thing that we would expect. [00:23:17] He fought by dying. [00:23:21] And the victory of mighty God for his people is the almighty weakness of Jesus. [00:23:27] And it is done. It is finished once and for all. [00:23:33] He is the mighty victor. [00:23:35] He is mighty God, and He is the mighty conqueror. [00:23:41] He wins a victory. [00:23:43] He wins. [00:23:45] But there is also a conquest as mighty God. He doesn't just win, he conquers. [00:23:53] Jesus subdues. [00:23:55] He takes people who are rebels against him, fighting him, and he subdues them. [00:24:03] He brings them under his rule so that they're not fighting him anymore. [00:24:07] Whereas it says in Psalm 110, he's putting the nations under his feet. [00:24:13] There's a victory, but there's also a conquest. [00:24:18] We don't expect him to fight by dying. [00:24:22] We also don't expect him to conquer in the way that he conquers, because he doesn't conquer by sword. [00:24:31] He doesn't conquer with guns or bombs. [00:24:37] And he doesn't set up a kingdom that seems primarily concerned with land, territories, trade routes. [00:24:47] It's a kingdom not of earth, but of heaven. A kingdom not about territory. Or we might say a kingdom whose territory is primarily concerned with conquering the hearts of men and women. [00:25:02] And you can see that quite clearly in Isaiah 9, 7. [00:25:07] His government is concerned with justice and righteousness, things that have to do with your heart. [00:25:17] He came to conquer and reign in your heart. [00:25:21] And so his conquest, like his victory, is not what we expect. [00:25:27] We expect a full grown warrior leading an army. We get a child who comes and suffers and dies in his conquest. We don't see weapons, we hear words. [00:25:46] What's the mightiest power of all? [00:25:53] Everything that you think is powerful, you take the greatest human power, our military might, whatever it might be, there's something more powerful than that. And everyone will acknowledge this. The forces of nature are far more powerful than any human weapon or power. [00:26:15] Earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, even water dripping away over time, wears away at rocks. [00:26:23] The forces of nature are far more powerful than any human power. [00:26:31] But what made all of that, what governs and commands all of that? [00:26:36] The voice that commanded the wind and the waves, he said, be still. [00:26:44] And nature obeyed him, because he's its master. He created it all. [00:26:51] The most powerful thing in the universe is the voice of mighty God, and he uses that to conquer sinners. [00:27:04] That's how he speaks. [00:27:06] He spoke and he created. [00:27:09] Now he speaks and he recreates. [00:27:13] Jesus, the mighty, conquering God comes and conquers the hearts of men, not with a sword and spear, but with words that you hear with your ear and believe with your heart. [00:27:27] He says, I came and I fought for you. [00:27:30] I came and I lived and died for you. [00:27:34] I came and died for your sins, and I bore all of God's wrath for you, so that whoever believes in me will not perish, but will have everlasting life. [00:27:50] Jesus doesn't conquer with swords, spears and weapons. [00:27:54] He conquers with words of love. [00:28:00] He says, surrender your hearts and not your garments, and return to me, for I am gracious and merciful. [00:28:12] He does not terrorize sinners with his words. [00:28:16] Rather, he calls them with a voice of love and compassion that says, look and turn to me. I died so that you could be forgiven and free. [00:28:28] I died to conquer your sins. [00:28:34] But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [00:28:43] Jesus says, see my love, O sinner. [00:28:47] Turn to me and be saved. [00:28:51] And if you're a Christian, you've experienced this, you know these words of love. Now maybe you're hurting, maybe you've sinned, maybe you're doubting and struggling and in temptation again, but you know this is true. [00:29:06] 1 John says, we love him because he first loved us. [00:29:15] Why are sinners hearts conquered? Why do we ever turn to God? [00:29:20] It's because he speaks to us with a voice of love. Now, Ahaz, he heard the mighty words of the mighty God promising to come and save. And he said, no, I don't want that. I don't believe that. I'm going to look for real power elsewhere. [00:29:36] And of course he was wrong. [00:29:39] And he rejected God and God rejected him. [00:29:44] But Jesus calls once more. Today, turn to me and be saved, for I am the mighty God and there is no other. There is no other Savior. Let's pray. [00:29:58] Lord Jesus, our hearts are overwhelmed as we hear your describe the darkness, the wickedness, the blackness of our souls. [00:30:16] You see even more clearly than we do just how dark they are. [00:30:21] O Lord Jesus, we thank you that your response to our sin is to arise and save. [00:30:31] We plead with you tonight that you would take hold of our hearts and impress them with your love. Help us to see your face smiling in your promises, in your grace, by your spirit, turn us, draw us to yourself, that where we are hurting, we might be healed. Where we were terrified, our hearts might melt under your love. [00:31:00] Where we are weary, we might return to you and find strength that we might go forth from your presence with joy. [00:31:10] In Jesus name we ask. Amen. [00:31:14] Jesus is our king. Let's sing of his reign.