Sermon Tone Analysis

A Child Is Born (PT 3)

Introduction

Open you Bible, if you are willing, to Isaiah Chapter 8, we will read Isaiah 8:22 - Isaiah 9:7 and focus in on verse Isaiah 9:6 today.

We will start in Isaiah 8:22 this morning.

Up until now we have talked about the who, God’s people, and the what, they will be comforted.

Tonight we will look at the cause of the comfort.

There is a little pointer word in verse 6 that gives us a “causal clause,” this word pointer is saying to us, do you want to know why Gods people will have comfort?

Well, its right here.

Lets Read Isaiah 8:22-9:7

May God Bless the reading of his Unfailing and Infallible Word.

Lets Pray

Verse 6 starts out with a very important Hebrew word pointer ki, “with causal clause” often translated “for, because” [1] This is the key to understanding the change from verse 22 of chapter 8 to verse 1 of chapter 9.

First there is distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish

Next there is no more gloom

That naturally leads to the question, umm, what changed?

Or maybe we could ask, what was the cause of this change?

The causal clause in verse 6 gives us the answer.

Because of this event in the first part of verse 6, “there will be no more gloom for her that was in anguish”

Because of this event, “the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations” has been made glorious.

Because of this event, “[t]he people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

Even those in the shadow of death itself, cannot be held back from joy because of this even.

Pastor Gabe would point to verse 6 and say theirs your scripture sandwich.

For me, I see chains in scripture, with all the unbreakable links linked to the center link, which is always teaching about God’s nature.

Illiterate chain idea.

Or, you might explain it as a thread, the unifying thing that links the text into a coherent message.

Like the theme for our current Old Testament series, the golden thread.

If you have the thread right, if you have done the sowing job right, when you pull it through the fabric it pulls all the pieces to gather.

Without thread all you have is pieces of cloth, add thread and you have the whole garment.

There is not one literary device that perfectly works with the Bible, its the word of God.

It is transcendent.

Its tasty like a sandwich, unbreakable as a chain and unified like thread which takes cloth and makes clothes.

Whatever device works best for you, sandwiches, chains, threads, once you see those connections, that’s when you know you are getting at the heart of what the text is saying.

Just for a little more practice lets pull on the chain here a little bit more.

Isaiah 9 Verse 3, the nation’s joy is increased, the harvest is in, and the battle is over, because of this event in verse 6.

Verse 4, the worst kind of oppression is broken because of this event in verse 6.

Verse 5, the war is over, boots we used to use to fight, the clothes from the battle, are now used to make a fire.

They are no longer needed because of this event in verse 6.

Transition

What is this event?

Lets look in verse 6.

Body

He Is Given (1)

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;” (Is 9:6, ESV)

Exposition

to us a child is born

Exposition

Another link in the chain

Verse 4, says “For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.”

(Is 9:4, ESV)

Gideon’s battle plan was ridiculous by human ideas.

God says, the nation is in darkness, there is death, there is a battle to be won.

Lets send a baby and that baby is going to win the battle by growing up and being murdered.

No human came up with that idea.

Even to day people try to reinvent Jesus.

Very well the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Co 1:18, ESV)

Many have tried to say that Jesus is just like so many other gods, the Bible is just like many other religious books.

Application

The world looks at these events, and says what a dumb story.

A baby saved the world by growing up and dying.

We, God’s People, say, through the Holy Spirit, wow, what an amazing work God has done.

We loo at Gideon’s story and say, God did that.

We look at Christ and say thank you Lord.

We walk by faith and not by sight, not that our faith is blind, it is a well informed faith, but in that we do not need the story to be humanly possible because we know our God is inhumanly powerful.

Transition

What work is it that we are thankful for?

God’ gave a son.

Take a look a the next part there in Isaiah 9:6.

to us a son is given

Exposition

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only [The word begotten is not in the Greek.

Its “τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν”[2]] Son, that whoever [whosoever, is not in the Greek either it’s “πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων”[2]] believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

(Jn 3:16, ESV)

Do you see the connection, the chain or thread here?

650 years before Jesus, Isaiah said, a son will be given.

When Jesus came, he said, the son is given and all the believing will be saved by him.

For all those the believe on him the anguish is over, the darkness is gone, there is a lasting joy.

Application

Last time we talked about gritty joy, a joy that sticks with you no matter the circumstances.

Where is that joy found and what is the foundation for it?

This right here, word of God.

(the problem with preaching out of an IPAD is I don’t have a bible to pick up and shake when I say that.

650 years before Jesus, Isaiah said there would be a son and he came.

Humans cannot do that, other gods cannot do that.

Only the living God that decreed the end from the beginning can do that.

There is something that Dr Voddie Baucham taught me, I think every believer should know this by heart.

I shared it to the church Facebook group earlier today.

There will be many people that compare the Bible to other Religious books.

To which Dr. Baucham would reply, “The bible is a collection of historically reliable texts, written by eye witnesses in the life time of other eye witnesses, that make supernatural claims, which fulfill specific prophecies.”

There is so much packed into that one sentence I cannot unpack it all here.

The point is that no other book, no other god, no other religion can make that claim.

Only the Bible and only the real living God.

Illustration

Imagine for a moment a man lost at sea. floating adrift with nothing but a slippery board to hang on to.

He sees a shore in the distance and swimming to it he finds land.

Hard ground and there is no more tyranny of the waves trying to snatch the board and drown him.

No matter how hard the survival might be on this land he has ground for joy.

Jesus said that the house built on the rock, on him, can weather any storm.

The believer that knows the word, knows what God has done, Through the word they have seen the given son, and this produces in them this gritty joy that sticks.

Just like the man lost at sea who found the land.

In the word the believer finds access to the rock himself who is a solid foundation.