Good Will Toward Men 4
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Text: Isaiah 9.6-7
Text: Isaiah 9.6-7
CIT: Our Hope for lasting Peace is rooted in the person of Christ.
Explore hope...
This Hope announced the night of Christmas was the breaking of 400 years of silence from the Heaven. It is here that we often think of the Good will toward men in the form of Peace between God and men. This is what we found last week in this text…The peace announced on this night is not a stand alone peace in the heart of man or among the people of the earth. But rather that great and guiding peace that comes between God and men.
One will never have the “PEACE OF GOD” (others) without “PEACE FROM GOD” (within) that only comes by “PEACE WITH GOD”. (God)
It was also last week that we used a timeline that we want to utilize a little this morning.
Remember that we saw
Peace Abolished ........ Peace Attained ...... Peace Animated ....... Peace Applied
The Prophet Isaiah introduced us to this coming peace maker in
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
And the government shall be upon his shoulder:
And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,
To order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice
From henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
To understand, we have to remember that Isaiah spoke at a difficult time in Israel. There was much uncertainty and fear because of outward threats (war and world affairs)
But inwardly there was turmoil as their domestic and foreign policies and allies shifted There was religious turmoil as well as people neglected God and sought their own ways.
We see references to dimness and people walking in darkness Romans 3:10-18 but perhaps v. 3 best summarizes the situation: Multiplied but not increased the joy
The verse goes on to describe a joy of sorts but focused on material things and fleeting. Isaiah looked at the time to come and promised one that would be the provider of peace through all these timelines.
Prince of Peace (Slide 6)
As a matter of fact many of us are familiar with the introduction of Jesus as the Prince of Peace.
This is not for now though the prince of peace is a title that will be bestowed on Jesus in the coming coronation.
Notice that this Son of God, this incredible gift will be a ruler who establishes order His identity is here revealed in the names and descriptions ascribed to Him
He will bear the government of the kingdom upon His own shoulder, being the head of all things
He has preeminence over thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers because He created them
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This will be accomplished because of his victory...
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
And reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:
And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
And faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
Their young ones shall lie down together:
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
Mighty God
This is not Isaiah confusing Jesus with the first person of the God head… This is a reminder to us that incarnation is the point of the birth of Jesus. Just as John 1 declares for us that God was born the night that Jesus was born.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Thomas claimed him to be “My Lord and my God.”
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Peter spoke of Him as “Our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
Jude called him “our only Lord God.”
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Himself claimed “I and my Father are one.”
I and my Father are one.
All the way back in eternity Past where only God existed exists our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Wonderful, Everlasting Father (Slide 7)
In his earthly ministry Jesus did many wonders and brought them into the family of God. In this way the completed work of calvary made him the father of all people of faith. He birthed us into an everlasting kingdom.
Counselor
He is our counselor when we turn to his word and find ourselves building the house of our lives upon the Rock of his Word.
But consider one of America’s greatest poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He lost his wife and was himself injured in a household accident. The nation was embroiled in Civil War. His son was severely wounded as a soldier in the Union armyx. In his diary he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.” He later wrote:
I heard the bells on Christmas day. Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men.
(Contemplating his world, he then wrote:)
And in despair I bowed my head: “There is no peace on earth”, I said, For hate is strong, and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men.
(But his faith began to speak through the fog of grief)
Then peeled the bells more loud and deep; “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.”
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Our every hope hinges on this Gift of a child, a Son who can redeem what was lost
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Conclusion: All you’ve had, all you can hope for apart from Jesus is a Grim Outlook. But the cure is to accept and embrace God’s Gift. Let His peace rule in your heart today. Allow Him to remove the yokes of sin’s bondage and scatter the darkness in His life-giving Light.