Isaiah chapter seven.
If you have your Bibles with you, that's Isaiah chapter seven.
No, it's just last week that Haley and I were invited
to go out to Perth concert hall
to go and see Handel's Messiah.
Now, if you've never heard of Handel's Messiah,
let me tell you it is one of the most powerful proclamations
of the gospel that one can hear in opera form.
That's right, the Perth concert hall was completely sold out
and packed full of sandgroopers hearing the proclamation
of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It was absolutely wonderful indeed.
And that was George Frederick Handel's whole objective.
He wanted for his audience to hear the gospel
of Jesus Christ loud and clear.
And so he wrote a beautiful piece of music,
many pieces actually, to carefully selected scripture
so that his audience could be mentally and emotionally drawn
into the good tidings of Jesus Christ through opera.
However, what I really appreciated
about this gospel work was where George started
the whole thing.
And that actually wasn't where most people would have thought
to have gone with the little baby Jesus born in Bethlehem.
Now, he actually thought about the whole picture,
the whole story of God's glad tidings
and took his starting point all the way back
in the book of Isaiah, to the very scripture
that we are going to be looking at this morning,
to the prophecy that Isaiah gave nearly 700 years
before the birth of Jesus Christ.
And so what I wanna do this morning
on this beautiful Christmas Eve is to also take you,
the church, back to that wonderful prophecy
that Isaiah gave about Jesus being born to the Virgin.
And then tomorrow on Christmas Day,
we'll look further in detail as to why Matthew,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
used these very words of Isaiah as proof
that the Christ had really been given to the world.
And so if you have your Bible with you this morning,
again, we're going to be looking predominantly
at Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14,
but we wanna have a look at the whole chapter
just to have a bit of context
to see why this prophecy was given.
But before we do any of that,
let's come to our Father in prayer.
Would you pray with me?
Father, we are so grateful to be here this morning.
And Father, as we look in anticipation to tomorrow,
we ask that you would help us to know this scripture
as your people looked in anticipation
to the birth of Christ.
But there is such hope for the people of God
because when you give your word,
you work it out in your world.
Father, we ask that today, tomorrow would indeed be
a great celebration of your work
and that we would look forward in anticipation
to the final work being done,
where you will take us to be where you are.
We love you, Lord, and we ask that you administer to us
through your word this morning.
In Jesus' name, amen.
These are the words of God, Isaiah 7.14.
Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.
The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.
And he will be called Emmanuel.
Now, not many people know that the context
to our passage this morning was actually given
right in the middle of a war.
That's right, this incredible word of hope
was given in a horrid time of Jerusalem's history.
And God gave his people this word
because he wanted his people to trust in him
against all the odds.
And so God sent the prophet Isaiah
as he wanted his people to hear from him
so that they would trust in his word
over their current external pressures.
And if you look at verse one,
the current external pressure was actually an invading army.
Now, what's really sad to note here
is that the invading army was none other
than Jerusalem's own kindred, the northern kingdom.
That's right, the northern kingdom of Israel
was coming against the southern kingdom of Israel,
which had come to be known as Judah or Jerusalem.
Now, what's so sad about all of this
is that they were once one people.
But as you might remember, under Solomon's reign,
the north and the south,
well, they split into two different kingdoms.
The north committed apostasy
in that they built their own temple
and they had their own idols,
yet the south remained somewhat committed to God
by knowing him through the Levitical priesthood.
However, what is worth noting and important here
is that the king of the south was always one of David's heirs.
Now, that's important because God promised David
that he would always have one of his sons on the throne.
And so, with that said,
the southern kingdom had the temple,
they had the priests,
and they had the king that was given to them by God,
yet the north had completely fallen away.
They'd fallen away from the true worship of God
and from the true leadership of the God of Israel.
And so, verse one of our chapter this morning
starts with incredible tension
with the north versus the south.
Now, Isaiah doesn't tell us in great detail,
but the reason that the north,
and it come against the gates of the south
was because the world power at that time,
the Assyrians had their eye on the whole land of Palestine.
And so, the northern kingdom was getting pretty nervous
and they looked to make a federation with the south
as they had already done with the pagan nation of Aram.
However, king Ahaz, he says no,
he doesn't want the federation.
Now, to cut a very, very long story short,
they pretty much say,
well, if you're not gonna join us,
we'll just invade Jerusalem,
we'll set up our own army,
we'll put our own general there,
and we will have safety in numbers.
We're reading kings that as they started
to implement that plan,
that the northern kingdom was pretty successful
in taking some of Judah,
but they couldn't take Jerusalem.
However, they didn't stop trying to take Jerusalem.
They didn't stop harassing the southerners.
And as we see here in verse two,
Jerusalem was getting very nervous
and we're told that the heart of the king and his people
were shaken as trees in the forest
that is shaken by the wind.
Now, church, we don't need to use our imaginations
that much here, do we?
Because the context of our text this morning
is somewhat like we have seen on our screens
in just the last few months with modern day Israel.
An invasion means slaughter and carnage,
and the people of Jerusalem were shaking in their boots,
thinking about what could happen.
And it's in that context that God sends
his faithful messenger, Isaiah,
to the king of Jerusalem with a message to trust him.
Now, before we have a look at that
and have a think about it,
I just want you to notice one small detail
here in our passage.
We read that God told Isaiah to go meet the king
near the upper pool.
That's in verse three,
to go meet the king in the upper pool.
Now, at first glance,
we might just read over that little detail
that Isaiah went to see the king in the upper pool,
but this is the thing.
If a city is going to come under attack,
the first thing that the enemy will do
is either cut off the water supply or taint it
so that the people would be in serious trouble
and forced to come outside the walls.
So obviously, King Ahaz in his band were preparing for war
and preparing to do something
about keeping their water supply in good flow.
In other words, as we read through this,
you're meant to feel the tension.
You're meant to feel the trepidation and nervousness.
Anyway, Isaiah goes to him and he says, be careful,
keep calm, don't be afraid,
don't lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs
of firewood.
Now, if you think, well, if you're not sure
if God has a sense of humor,
then right here you have a little taste of it.
You see, what God is doing here
is he's telling Ahaz not to worry about the two kings
that have come to invade Jerusalem
because they're nothing more than a couple of stubs
of firewood.
In other words, God is making fun of these kings
because he sees them as a couple of useless bits
of splinter which is only good for the fire.
It reminds us of Psalm two, doesn't it?
Why do the nations conspire and the people's plot in vain?
The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together against the Lord
and his anointed, the king, saying,
let's break their chains and throw off their shackles.
The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord scoffs at them.
Hear that?
The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord scoffs at them.
That's how God views the enemy of his people.
Nothing more than the laughing stock of the heavenly realms.
Now this isn't to make light of the situation
and the very, very real enemies
that are a very real threat to the people of God.
But the point is this,
though the people might be shaking in their boots,
God isn't.
No, he wants the king of Jerusalem to know
that he isn't on his throne in heaven
worried about what's going to happen.
No, not at all.
In fact, he sees the enemy, his enemy, our enemy
as something to be laughed at, to be scoffed at.
So why aren't the people of God?
Why isn't the king that God has put on the throne
doing the same thing?
Why is all Jerusalem like trees shaking in the wind
and the king plotting in how to keep the city from ruin?
Maybe even contemplating making a deal with the enemy.
Well, my notes suggest to you this morning,
it comes down to fear.
That's what we're seeing here.
The people are scared of the threat before them
because they have taken their eyes off God
and they've put them squarely on their circumstances,
on the situation that they see right before them.
And might I say, isn't that the root of all our fears?
I mean, I don't know about you brothers and sisters,
but when I forget the promises of God,
when I forget how he chose me
before the foundation of the world,
how Christ died for my sin
and that my debt has been paid,
how all things work for the good of those who love God.
When I forget those simple promises
held out to the people of God,
I find that the many, the many complex
and difficult situations before my eyes
tend to grip my heart and fear is the result.
Well, that's happening in our texts.
The people of God, they had the promises of God.
They had the promise that he would preserve his people.
He would preserve a remnant.
They were living in the city of Jerusalem,
the remnant city.
They had the temple where he would make his presence known.
They had the Levitical priesthood
who lived to minister to them
and they had God's chosen King leading them.
Yet despite all of that,
they were scared because they had taken their eyes off God
and concentrated on what was right before them.
And fear was driving them.
It was driving them.
So God comes to his people and says,
through Isaiah in verses five through to nine,
that it was all going to come to nothing.
I love what God is doing here.
I love this because he's showing such incredible grace
and mercy to his people.
I mean, think about it, time and time again,
the Jews lost their faith in God
and they turned to other so-called gods, the boughs.
They turned to other things time and time again.
Time and time again, they lost trust
and tried to work things out in the flesh.
Yet God again in his mercy and in his grace
comes to his scared children in the dark
and lets them know that these clowns
with their party plans were going to come to nothing.
So might I say to you all here this morning
that the biggest threat to God's people
isn't actually our enemy, but our own faithlessness.
I think that's what we're meant to see here.
There was a very real enemy, that's not denied here,
a very real enemy knocking at the door.
And there was a very real bigger enemy behind them,
Assyria, they were real threats.
However, what was even more dangerous than military might
was the people of God losing trust in their God
and thus not trusting his promises,
which was causing this crippling fear
in which they were acting out of.
And that is the thing, church.
When we take our eyes off God and put them
onto our circumstances and fear grips our heart,
we tend to act out of that fear
and try to take the situation into our own hands.
And when we do that, when we lose trust in God's goodness
and his sovereignty and look to solve every problem
in our own strength and means,
that's when we start to spiral out of control.
That's the warning God gives here in verse nine.
If you don't stand firm in your faith,
you won't stand at all.
In other words, if your face is turned to the problem
and not to God, when, not if,
but when the enemy comes knocking on your door,
you'll crumble like cottage cheese under a truck.
Church, just this week, I sat with our dear sister, Hennie,
and had the great privilege of praying
with an incredibly faithful woman
who was looking forward to meeting her Lord face to face.
There is no denying that the enemy of death
has indeed come knocking on her door.
She has in the midst of it, a sense of excitement
to see how God is going to conquer her greatest enemy.
She is a woman who in spite of it all
has turned her face to God.
And as the enemy of death comes near
with its taunting, its trepidation,
its history of destruction,
she sits in absolute confidence
that God has done everything
that is needed to be done in Christ
so that her enemy's final sting
will ultimately pass her by.
It's like she said several times,
be still and know that I am Lord.
Now as I said before, the people of God,
they're like scared children behind the walls of Jerusalem
in this dark room, but instead of rebuking them,
God in his mercy, we see in verses 10 through to 11
that he was actually willing to give a sign
in order to build their faith,
a sign to strengthen his weak children
to help them, to remind them to be still
and know that he is Lord.
However, what we see in our passage this morning
is a really interesting response to God's grace and mercy.
And I say it's interesting
because we're going to look at verse 12 very quickly
and it seems quite faithful,
quite pious some might say.
But Ahaz said, I won't ask,
I won't put the Lord to the test.
He sounds a bit like Jesus there,
but as we're going to see,
his heart isn't as pure as one might think.
You see, what's really going on
is that Ahaz doesn't want to follow God's direction.
He doesn't want to sign to be given
because he doesn't want to believe the word of God.
Now why do I say that?
Well, it all comes down to the plans that Ahaz had.
Again, it's like we saw before,
Isaiah meets Ahaz where the upper pool was,
where he could see the enemy,
where he was planning and plotting
to take care of things in his own way,
in his own strength.
Yet what has God just said?
God has just said,
none of the enemy plans will come to fruition.
Verse five, it won't take place, sorry, verse seven.
It won't take place, it won't happen.
God wouldn't let anything happen to his people.
So God said, Ahaz, just so you know
that you can trust me,
I'll give you a sign to remind you to be still
and know that I am Lord.
But as we see here, Ahaz rejects the word of the Lord.
This is where it gets really interesting
because in verse 13, God says,
I'm going to give you a sign anyway.
Now I want you to notice this language
because it's terrifying.
The language shifts in verse 13.
Ahazia begins by saying, House of David,
but ends by saying,
will you try the patience of my God?
Notice that shift.
Ahazia comes to Israel's king and says,
this is what our God is going to do
for his king and his people.
Yet Ahaz rejects the word of God
and thus Ahazia finishes by saying,
this is what my God will do for his people.
Anyway, so we might notice a couple of things going on here.
There's going to be a sign given.
And in one sense, it's going to be a sign of judgment
on Israel's king for rejecting the word of the Lord.
Yet in another sense, the very same sign
will be a sign of hope
because God is going to bring his true,
his obedient, his righteous,
his righteous, his righteous,
his obedient, his righteous king into this world.
So he says, therefore,
the Lord himself will give you a sign.
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son.
And they will call him Emmanuel.
God then tells the king in verses 15 and 16
that within three years,
the threat of the northern kingdom
will completely disappear.
But then in verse 17, judgment is pronounced.
Assyria will come.
They will invade Jerusalem.
And Ahaz will be destroyed.
So, dear ones, it's as I pointed out before,
this chapter is all about trusting God's word.
But we also see right smack bang
in the middle of this passage
that God gives an incredible promise to his people.
You see, God is in total and sovereign control
over all there is.
To Ahaz, he made that clear
in that he is the author of all history
and that nothing would happen outside of his plan.
Yet Ahaz rejected the word of the Lord.
He comes under judgment.
To God's people,
our God promised to always have a king on the throne.
A king in the line of David
who would rule over his people.
And God said that he would bring that king
into this world from the womb of a virgin.
Now, I say that God intended to bring his true king
into this world from the womb of a virgin
because this is exactly how Matthew understood
the birth of Christ to have come about.
Now, as I said before,
we'll look at this in greater detail tomorrow.
But for now, I'd like to make a couple of very quick comments.
First, Matthew makes it clear in the first chapter of his book
that Jesus Christ, whom he followed in his earthly ministry,
was the fulfillment of this promise made 700 years prior.
It's right there in chapter 1, verse 23, if you want to check it out.
Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem,
which in and of itself is absolutely incredible.
But believe it or not, it's actually the second thing
that is most mind-blowing.
And it's to do with what Isaiah said they will call him,
which Matthew interprets for us, Emmanuel.
It means God with us.
In other words, this Jesus, who is the Christ,
who is the Son of David,
is the one who would be called God with us.
That's why wonderful poetry, musicals, operas have been created,
why Christians all over the world come to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
It's because it's a time where we remember when God himself came into this world,
as Matthew says, to save his people from their sins.
Church, Jesus is so much more than a king.
He is God himself who came into this world
to rule this world from the throne of his Father.
In other words, Jesus is the true king who came to defeat our greatest enemy,
sin and death, and he raised victorious over the grave.
And as at this very moment, seated at the right hand of God,
where he will come to gather his people.
And so as we bring this passage to an end, what is the message for us?
What is the message for us?
It's very simple.
There are two ways to live in this world.
To be or not to be like Ahaz.
You see, God has given his promises to us in his word.
And all people, every single person who has been made in the image of God,
is called to trust in the promises that our God has made.
Matthew makes it clear in his Gospel that the Son, who would be born through the Virgin,
would grow up to be the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.
And so we are called to trust in that, rather than me, myself and I,
and our own attempts to get right with God,
through our own good works and our own assessment of things.
We're called to trust God, called to trust and put our faith in the Son that he sent into this world.
To put all our hope in him.
And the promise of God is that if you trust in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
you will be saved from your sin.
Brothers and sisters, there is only two ways to live in this world.
Trusting or rejecting the promises of God.
There is no middle ground with our Creator.
And there is such a dire warning given in our passage this morning to anyone
who stands in rejection to the words of God, like we see with Ahaz.
But in saying that there is such hope in our passage this morning.
Hope that anyone, who so ever trusts in the Word of God, who puts faith in Jesus Christ, will be saved.
So dear ones, might we ask for God's wonderful grace on this beautiful Christmas Eve
to trust in his wonderful promises and for us to be still and know that he is Lord.
Would you pray with me?
Father, we are indeed so thankful to be here this morning.
So thankful to come around the words of eternal life.
So thankful that your people haven't gathered to hear from me, but from you, from your Word.
And Father, as we pray week in and week out, we ask that you would hold your Son high in our midst
and by your Spirit that you would show us more of him, that we would be conformed to his image.
Father, we are so thankful that you sent your only begotten Son.
We are so thankful that he lived a perfect life, died the death we deserve,
was raised victorious so that we might come to you in the assurance of your grace.
Father, we would ask that gospel truth would grip our heart,
that you would invade the walls that we've put up towards you, Lord, by trying to do things in our own strength.
That Father, you would capture our hearts and cause our eyes to look to the true King, to the Messiah, the Christ,
and that we would work out our salvation.
We love you, Lord, and we ask for you to change us. In Jesus' name, amen.